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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BEAUTY CROWNED; 



OR, 



THE STORY OF ESTHER, 



THE JEWISH MAIDEN 



P o" 



/ 



REV. j: N. FRADENBURGH, Ph.D., D.D., 

Member of the American Oriental Society ', the Society of Biblical Archaeology 
of London^ etc. 

Author of "Witnesses from the Dust," etc. 



OFCO/v G , 






WASW 



NEW YORK: 
PHILLIPS & HUNT. 

CINCTNNA TJ : 
V PAN ST ON & ST OWE. 

1887. 






Copyright, 1887, hy 
PHILLIPS & HUNT, 

New York. 



TO 

THE QUEENLY WOMEN OF AMERICA, 

THE LIGHT OF HOME, 

THE INSPIRATION OF PATRIOTISM, 

THE HEART OF RELIGION, THE LIFE OF REFORM, 

THIS VOLUME IS 

(UtorsInpfuIIs Itittiifafe. 



PREFACE 



THE story of Esther possesses a charm peculiarly 
its own. The style is perfect and the Hebrew 
pure. There are only enough Persian words to give- 
it an Oriental flavor, and only enough later Hebrew 
to suit the date of its composition. There is no 
affectation, and the only art is the unconscious " art 
of artlessness." There is no attempt at the sublime, 
yet the book is not lacking in sublimity. The char- 
acters stand out in clear light and speak for them- 
selves. There is no waste of words, yet the whole 
story is told. Each part fills its own proper place, 
and the skillfully -planned denouement is most dra- 
matic. It is altogether a magnificent piece of writ- 
ing which never fails to fascinate the reader. 

The Book of Esther is an important chapter in 
the history of the world, and its story moves in the 
midst of stirring events. The impartial student 
cannot well afford to neglect this priceless contribu- 
tion. The deliverance of the people of God from 
the fury of Hainan the Agagite should be mentioned 
with the earlier deliverance from Egyptian bondage. 



6 Preface. 

This story furnishes glimpses of the court of a 
Persian king, his harem, and his palace ; it refers 
to many customs connected with social and domestic 
life ; it portrays the character of an Oriental despot 
and outlines the organization of his government ; and 
it proclaims the queenliness of a beautiful woman 
when possessed of corresponding graces of mind and 
heart. The story touches history at so many points, 
and the references to laws and customs — many of 
them undesigned — are so numerous, that it were easy 
to detect a mistake, if the writer were not true to 
facts. 

In the present work the author has so woven clas- 
sical and Oriental illustrations into the story that the 
minute truthfulness of the account may be consid- 
ered demonstrated beyond successful controversy. 
The reader will feel confident that it is not mere 
romance but veritable history, while the charm of the 
story is greatly heightened by this consideration. 

The questions of temperance and home, brought 
prominently forward, have received a fair share of 
consideration, while other lesser but important sub- 
jects have not been forgotten. 

It is believed that this new dress in which the 
story of Esther appears will insure new interest in its 
study. 

July, 1887. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter page 

I. The Vast Kingdom and the Mighty King 9 

II. The Magnificent Palace 24 

III. The Banquet of "Wine 46 

IV. Folly, Anger, Divorce 80 

V. Love and Home 96 

VI. The Queenliness of Beauty 107 

VII. Enthroned and Crowned 129 

VIII. The Conspiracy Discovered 141 

IX. Pride Before a Fall 147 

X. Superstition and Cruelty, Hand in Hand 157 

XL Suspense, Agony, Resolution 176 

XII. Magnificent Heroism, Masterly Delay, Wakeful 

Providence t 192 

XIII. "Wheels "Within "Wheels 205 

XIV. Poetic Justice 216 

XV. The Beginning of the End 224 

XVI. Victory, Peace, Gladness 235 

XVII. Prosperity, Happiness 247 

Index 257 



$IIttstr»ti0RS. 



PAGE 

Tesselated Pavements. 38 

Persian King 49 

Royal Parasol 56 

King with Attendants 57 

Fan, or Fly-chaser 57 

Scent-Bottle 58 

Jewish Captives 108 

Judea Capta 112 

Articles for the Toilet 130 

Ear-drops 132 

Neck Collars 132 

Bracelets 135 

Armlets 136 

Oriental Prostration 151 

Seal-rings 1 69 

King on his Throne 193 

Impalement 223 

Ordinary Persian Costume 230 

Subjects bring Tribute to the King 219 

The Tomb of Mordecai and Esther 254 



Beauty Crowned. 



THE YAST KINGDOM AND THE MIGHTY KING. 

" Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over 
an hundred and seven and twenty provinces." — Esther i, 1. 

Sennacheeib is the most colossal figure in all 
Assyrian history, in whom more than in any other 
monarch were impersonated Oriental pride, violence, 
and power. He defeated a host of Ethiopians and 
Egyptians at Ekron, and, in order to restore the 
Ekronite king, who had been deposed and sent to 
Hezekiah, invaded Judea and took forty-six fenced 
cities, and of smaller cities and towns "a countless 
number." Hezekiah sued for peace, and despoiled 
the temple to pay the heavy tribute imposed by 
the conqueror. Expecting help from Egypt, he 
again revolted, and Sennacherib sent him a stern 
letter demanding unconditional and immediate sur- 
render. 

The letter was spread before Him who was en- 
throned above the cherubim, and he answered Sen- 



10 Beauty Ckowned. 

nacherib : " I will put my hook in thy nose, and my 
bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the 
way by which thou earnest." 2 Kings xix, 28. The 
morning brought these tidings to Jerusalem : " The 
angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp 
of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thou- 
sand." 2 Kings xix, 35. 

In the reign of Assurbanipal, grandson of Sennach- 
erib, Assyria reached her highest glory. " Behold, 
the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair 
branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an 
high stature; and his top was among the thick 
boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set 
him up on high with her rivers running round about 
his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the 
trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted 
above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were 
multiplied, and his branches became long because of 
the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All 
the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, 
and under his branches did all the beasts of the field 
bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt 
all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, 
in the length of his branches : for his root was by 
great waters. The cedars of the garden of God 
could not hide him : the fir-trees were not like his 
boughs, and the chestnut- trees were not like his 
branches ; not any tree in the garden of God was like 



The Yast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 11 

unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by 
the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees 
of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied 
him." Ezek. xxxi, 3-9. 

The Medes and Babylonians invaded the kingdom, 
and the cedar fell in B.C. 625. 

Nebuchadnezzar was the grandest figure in Baby- 
lonian history. His siege of Tyre, which lasted thir- 
teen years, was most memorable. He laid siege to 
Jerusalem, which endured untold horrors and resisted 
with the energy of despair, but after eighteen months 
yielded to the resistless fury of the proud conqueror. 

By the naked physical strength of his captives he 
was enabled to construct those gigantic works — the 
great wall of Babylon, the " hanging gardens," mag- 
nificent palaces, canals, a vast reservoir, quays and 
breakwaters, temples and embankments — which have 
done far more to render his name illustrious than all 
his military exploits. Near the close of his reign he 
was attacked by a strange malady known to the 
physicians as lycanthropy. He believed himself a 
beast ; fled the society of men, discarded clothing, 
fed on herbs, and became covered with a shaggy coat 
of hair. After " seven times " he was restored, and 
praised the God of heaven. He died B.C. 561. 

Cyaxares founded the Median kingdom, and shared 
with Nabopolassar of Babylon the territory of the 
conquered Assyrians. He sought occasion to make 



12 Beauty Crowned. 

war against most ancient, proud, and unconquered 
Lydia, a kingdom whose river Pactolus ran with 
gold, whose people invented coined money, and 
whose king Gyges was celebrated for his wars, his 
wealth, and the romance of his history. The war 
was waged with great fury and varying success. 
At length, while the two armies were engaged in 
deadly conflict, darkness fell upon both — it was an 
eclipse of the sun — and struck all with awe and terror. 

They cease to fight and contemplate the portent. 
They agree upon an armistice and arrange terms of 
peace. The two monarchs meet, repeat the terms of 
the treaty, pierce their arms, and seal the contract by 
sucking each the other's blood. 

Media was conquered by Cyrus B.C. 558. " The 
mighty one of the heathen " and the " terrible of the 
nations,", after an existence of sixty-seven years, 
passed away. 

Xerxes inherited the broadest empire of kingdoms 
the world had ever seen — "from India even unto 
Ethiopia." He was assassinated in his sleeping apart- 
ment B.C. 465. At the battle of Arbela, B.C. 330, 
" the crown of Cyrus passed to the Macedonian." 

The Persians were " quick and lively, keen-witted, 
capable of repartee, ingenious, and, for Orientals, far- 
sighted." They had fancy and imagination, but with 
the exuberance of the imaginative faculty there were 
childishness, extravagance, and grotesqueness. They 



The Yast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 13 

had a relish for poetry, and the writings of their bards, 
with much that is pretty, sparkling, and quaint, are 
full of Oriental marvels. They were bold and war- 
like, and in courage stood at the head of the nations 
of their time. The Greeks defeated them not because 
of superior bravery in battle, but because of better 
arms, better equipment, more perfect organization, 
and severer discipline. The Persians certainly pos- 
sessed ,more stubbornness in conflict and more endur- 
ance than any neighboring nation. They were en- 
dowed with great energy, and waged war after war 
and conducted expedition after expedition with lit- 
tle rest, enjoying a career of conquest which has few 
parallels in history. Falsehood was considered the 
basest of sins, and self-indulgence and luxury were un- 
known. Persians were immoderate in the manifesta- 
tion of joy or sorrow, and " laughed and wept, shout- 
ed and shrieked, with the unrestraint of children who 
are not ashamed to lay bare their inmost feelings to the 
eyes of those about them. Lively and excitable, they 
loved to give vent to every passion that stirred their 
hearts, and cared not how many witnessed their lam- 
entations or their rejoicings." 

The king had absolute control over the property, 
liberty, and lives of his subjects, and none dared dis- 
pute his will. His empire was eight times as large 
as the Babylonian and four times as large as the As- 
syrian at their widest sway. 



14 Beauty Crowned. 

There was nothing in Persia proper to prophesy so 
magnificent a growth and so glorious a history. It 
was but one twentieth of the size of the empire in its 
glory. The warm district of Fars, about one eighth 
of the whole in area, extends between the mountains 
and the sea the whole length of the province ; a narrow 
strip of land, of poor, sandy, and clayey soil, poorly 
watered, of torrid heat, unpropitious and unpro- 
ductive. The remainder of the province, though 
generally sterile and barren, contains not a few richly 
fertile sections, "picturesque and romantic almost 
beyond imagination, with lovely wooded dells, green 
mountain sides, and broad plains suited for the pro- 
duction of almost any crop." It is poorly watered, 
the few rivers being generally lost in the sands or salt 
lakes. The mountain gorges afford the most remark- 
able feature of the country. Scarped rocks rise sheer 
on either side of mountain streams sometimes to a 
height of two thousand feet. Roads are cut on the 
sides of the precipices, and pass by bridges from side 
to side over profound chasms, through which angry 
streams dash and roar and chafe and foam, leaping 
many a cascade, and fall, restless and furious, rushing 
to the sea. The country is strongly defended on the 
north and east by deserts, and on the south by a strong 
mountain wall. 

The provinces of the Persian monarchy are those 
which have made the history of the Oriental world. 



The Vast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 15 

There is Babylonia, with its great cities, its most 
ancient literature, its idolatrous worship, its magicians 
and astrologers, its magnificence and wealth, the home 
of Abraham and the land of the Jewish captivity. 
There is Assyria, with its bloody Nineveh, its tem- 
ples, its fertility, its conquests, its pride, its unspeak- 
able cruelties, its kings, and its mighty hunters — the 
land of the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel. 
There is Susiana, with its ancient Accadian race and 
religion, and its magnificent court in " Shushan the 
palace/' There is Asia Minor, with its classic streams, 
its great nations, its Ionic cities, and its Homeric sites. 
There are Cyprus, whose rich mines gave the name of 
copper, cyprium, to the civilized world, and Armenia, 
the traditional land of the Noachian Ararat. There 
is Phenicia, one of the pioneer nations in letters and 
commerce, with its Tyre and Sidon, and its many 
distant colonies. There is Palestine, the Land of 
Promise, flowing with milk and honey — the land of 
the chosen people of God — with its sacred cities, holy 
shrines, and wonderful history. There is Egypt, the 
land of the pyramid and the tomb, the obelisk and 
the sphinx, the idol and the temple, the land of the 
most ancient hieroglyphic literature, the land of the 
proud Pharaohs, and of Joseph and Moses, of the 
famine, the plague, and the pestilence. There are 
Aria, the primitive home of the Aryan race, and 
Bactria, the home of Zoroaster. And there is India, 



16 Beauty Crowned. 

of inexhaustible resources, of prodigious literature, 
and of a religion having the most cumbrous ritual of 
any religion in the world — India promising a most 
glorious future. 

The account given of the character of Ahasuerus is 
a life-like picture of a Persian king, and especially of 
Xerxes as presented by our best authorities. There 
is abundant proof of this statement. 

The story of Cambyses is characteristic. His cup- 
bearer was the son of Prexaspes, and Prexaspes had 
offended the king by telling him that the Persians 
thought him too much given to wine. Cambyses re- 
plied : " ' Judge now thyself, Prexaspes, whether the 
Persians tell the truth, or whether it is not they who 
are mad for speaking as they do. Look there, now, 
at thy son standing in the vestibule ; if I shoot and 
hit him right in the middle of the heart, it will be 
plain the Persians have no grounds for what they say ; 
if I miss him, then I allow that the Persians are right, 
and that I am out of my mind.' So speaking, he 
drew the bow to the full and struck the boy, who 
straightway fell down dead. Then Cambyses ordered 
the body to be opened, and the wound examined ; and, 
when the arrow was found to have entered the heart, 
the king was quite overjoyed, and said to the father, 
with a laugh, 'Now thou seest plainly, Prexaspes, 
that it is not I who am mad, but the Persians who 
have lost their senses. I pray thee, tell me, sawest 



The Yast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 17 

thou ever mortal man send an arrow with a better 
aim \ ' Prexaspes, seeing that the king was not in 
his right mind, and fearing for himself, replied, ' O 
my lord! I do not think that God himself could shoot 
so dexterously.' Such was the outrage which Cam- 
byses committed at this time ; at another, he took 
twelve of the noblest Persians, and, without bringing 
any charge worthy of death against them, buried 
them all up to the neck." * 

Herodotus relates that Cambyses entered the royal 
palace at Sais, and caused the body of King Amasis 
to be brought from the sepulcher, scourged, pricked 
with goads, and subjected to all manner of insult. 
Having in this inhuman manner satisfied his rage, he 
ordered its burial. 

Croesus, the Lydian, gave Cambyses valuable ad- 
vice, but was repaid with the sentence to death. 
The servants charged with his execution concealed 
the conquered king, believing that Cambyses would 
soon repent of his impulsive wickedness. It turned 
out as they anticipated, but when Cambyses was 
informed that Croesus was alive, he replied, "I am 
glad that Croesus lives, but as for you who saved 
him, ye shall not escape my vengeance, but shall all 
of you be put to death." So saying, he caused them 
all to be slain.f 

Astyages had a dream which prophesied ruin to 

* Herodotus, iii, 35. f Ibid, iii, 36. 



18 Beauty Crowned. 

himself, but honor to Cyrus, the infant son of his 
daughter Mandane. Moved by terror, he gave Cyrus 
to Harpagus to be slain. Some time after this, he 
learned that Cyrus had been spared, and rejoiced, but 
" took the son of Harpagus, and slew him, after 
which he cut him in pieces, and roasted some pieces 
before the fire, and boiled others," and served up to 
Harpagus the cannibal food at a banquet. Then, ask- 
ing his guest how he enjoyed the repast, he showed 
him the head, hands, and feet of his son. 

When Cyrus reached the Gyndes with his army, 
one of his sacred white horses — the story may be a 
fable — was swept away by the swift current and 
drowned. " Cyrus, enraged at the insolence of the 
river, threatened so to break its strength that in 
future even women should cross it easily without 
wetting their knees." Thereupon he dispersed the 
stream through three hundred and sixty channels.* 

This inconsistent, despotic, and savage trait of char- 
acter was prominent in Xerxes. When a great storm 
broke the first bridge which he threw across the Hel- 
lespont, he " straightway gave orders that the Helles- 
pont should receive three hundred lashes, and that a 
pair of fetters should be cast into it. Nay, I have 
even heard it said that he bade the branders take 
their irons, and therewith brand the Hellespont." 
Those who scourged the waters uttered at his com- 

* Herodotus, i, 119, 189, 190. 



The Yast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 19 

mand these words: "Thou bitter water, thy lord 
lays on thee this punishment because thou hast 
wronged him without a cause, having suffered no evil 
at his hands. Yerily, King Xerxes will cross thee, 
whether thou wilt or no. Well dost thou deserve 
that no man should honor thee with sacrifice; for 
thou art of a truth a treacherous and unsavory river." 
He also ordered them who had constructed the bridge 
to be put to death.* 

Before the battle of Salamis, which decided the 
fate of Greece, Artemisia advised him not to risk an 
engagement at sea, and so well was the character of 
Xerxes known that the friends of the noble and war- 
like queen feared for her life. During the progress 
of the battle certain Phenicians whose ships had been 
sunk accused the Ionians of being traitors. Just 
then the gallant conduct of a Samothracian vessel 
contradicted their words. " Xerxes, when he saw the 
exploit, turned fiercely on the Phenicians (he was 
ready, in his extreme vexation, to find fault with any 
one), and ordered their heads to be cut off, to prevent 
them, he said, from casting the blame of their own 
misconduct upon braver men." After the battle, 
Mardonius feared the king's vengeance for having 
advised the ill-fated expedition. f 

In his retreat from Europe Xerxes embarked in a 
Phenician vessel. A storm arose, the ship labored 

* Herodotus, vii, 35. f Ibid., viii, 69, 90, 100. 



20 Beauty Crowned. 

heavily, and the helmsman despaired of saving the 
king, unless he could get "quit of these too numer- 
ous passengers." Whereupon the king, addressing 
the Persians, said, " Men of Persia, now is the time 
for you to show what love you bear your king. My 
safety, as it seems, depends wholly upon you." The 
Persians of his train " instantly made obeisance, and 
then leaped over into the sea." The ship was light- 
ened, and the king saved. When Xerxes reached 
the shore he gave the helmsman a golden crown be- 
cause he had saved his life, "but, because he had 
caused the death of a number of Persians, he ordered 
his head to be struck from his shoulders." This 
account, however, is not credited by Herodotus, and 
yet, as Rawlinson says, it is " a striking embodiment 
of the real Oriental feeling with regard to the person 
of the monarch." * 

At another time we see him in a different mood. 
When he looked out upon the Hellespont, covered 
with his immense fleet ready to proceed upon its ca- 
reer of expected conquest, he wept at the sight. 
When asked the cause of his weeping, he replied: 
" There came upon me a sudden pity when I thought 
of the shortness of man's life, and considered that of 
all this host, so numerous as it is, not one will be 
alive when a hundred years are gone by." f 

Like other Persian kings, Xerxes met with many 
* Herodotus, viii, 118. \ Ibid., vii, 46. 



The Vast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 21 

difficulties in his amours which resulted in rage, cru- 
elty, and murder. The story of his love of Artaynta, 
the daughter of Masistes, his brother, will be related 
in a future chapter. 

Rawlinson sums up the character of Xerxes ; " The 
character of Xerxes falls below that of any preceding 
monarch. Excepting that lie was not wholly devoid 
of a certain magnanimity, which made him listen pa- 
tiently to those who opposed his views, or gave him 
unpalatable advice, and which prevented him from 
exacting vengeance on some occasions, he had scarcely 
a trait whereon the mind can rest with any satisfac- 
tion. Weak and easily led, puerile in his gusts of 
passion, and his complete abandonment of himself to 
them — selfish, fickle, boastful, cruel, superstitious, li- 
centious — he exhibits to us the Oriental despot in the 
most contemptible of all his aspects — that wherein 
the moral and the intellectual qualities are equally in 
defect, and the career is one unvarying course of vice 
and folly. From Xerxes we have to date at once the 
decline of the empire in respect of territorial great- 
ness and military strength, and likewise its deteriora- 
tion in regard to administrative vigor and national 
spirit. With him commenced the corruption of the 
court — the fatal evil which almost universally weak- 
ens and destroys Oriental dynasties. His expedition 
against Greece exhausted and depopulated the em- 
pire ; and though, by abstaining from further mili- 



22 Beauty Crowned. 

tary enterprises, he did what lay ill his power to re- 
cruit its strength, still the losses which his expedition 
caused were certainly not repaired in his life-time." 
He may, however, be placed "in the foremost rank 
of Oriental builders." * 

The character of Ahasuerus fits no Persian mon- 
arch so well as Xerxes, and it fits him exactly. The 
name is the same. The transliteration of Ahasuerus, 
Achashverosh of the Hebrew, Khshayarsha of the 
cuneiform inscriptions, and Xerxes is very close, and 
no other transliteration is possible. The extent of 
the empire suits the reign of this monarch. He 
reigned " from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hun- 
dred and seven and twenty provinces." According 
to Daniel, Darius the Mede set over his kingdom a 
hundred and twenty satraps. Dan. vi, 2. Herodotus 
says that Darius divided the kingdom into twenty 
satrapies, but each of these embraced several geo- 
graphical regions or " provinces." Mardonius names 
Indians and Ethiopians as subjects of Xerxes. They 
paid tribute to Persia, and served in the mighty 
army.f 

In an inscription of Xerxes, at Persepolis, he calls 
himself "sole king of many kings, sole emperor of 
many emperors." He says : " I am Xerxes, the great 
king, the king of kings, the king of the lands where 

* Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii, pp. 410, 471. 
f Herodotus, iii, 9, 65, 69, 10; vii, 94, 97, 98. 



The Yast Kingdom and the Mighty King. 23 

many languages are spoken, the king of this wide 
earth, afar and near." * 

The chronology of events is perfectly harmonious, 
while the history of no other Persian monarch can be 
made to harmonize with the Book of Esther. 

" In the third year of the reign of Xerxes was held 
an assembly to arrange the Grecian war ; f in the 
third year of Ahasuerus was held a great feast and 
assembly in Shushan the palace. Esth. i, 3. In the 
seventh year of his reign Xerxes returned defeated 
from Greece, and consoled himself by the pleasures 
of the harem ; £ in the seventh year of his reign 
' fair young virgins were sought ' for Ahasuerus, and 
he replaced Vashti by marrying Esther. The tribute 
he ' laid upon the land, and upon the isles of the 
sea' (Esth. x, 1) may well have been the result of the 
expenditure and ruin of the Grecian expedition." § 

We may consider the identification of Ahasuerus 
with Xerxes as settled beyond all dispute. His 
name, his character, his place in history, and the 
events themselves are fully satisfied by this identifi- 
cation. 

* Oppert, Records of the Past, vol. ix, p. 81. 

f Herodotus, vii, 7, sq. % Ibid., ix, 108. 

§ McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Ahasuerus. 



24 Beauty Ceowned. 



II. 

THE MAGNIFICENT PALACE. 
"Shushan the palace. 1 ' — Esther i, 2. 

Susa, "the city of lilies," " ornate with the gold of 
Cissia," was the capital of the biblical Elam, the 
Elyraais of the geographers, the Cissia of the Greeks, 
the Susis or Susiana of the later Greeks. u This ter- 
ritory comprised a portion of the mountain country 
which separates Mesopotamia from Persia ; but is 
chiefly composed of the broad and rich flats interven- 
ing between the mountains and the Tigris, alone; the 
courses of the Kerkhah, Knran, and Jerahi rivers. It 
w r as a rich and fertile tract, resembling Chaldea in its 
general character," while " the vicinity of the mount- 
ains lent it freshness, giving it cooler streams, more 
frequent rains, and pleasanter breezes." * 

The mountains of Luristan furnish prominent feat- 
ures in the appearance of the country. " The great 
range attains an elevation of eight or ten thousand 
feet above the sea, and bears in a general direction 
toward' the north-west. Its rocky masses belong 
entirely to the cetaceous and lower tertiary series, 
rising in huge, elongated saddles of compact altered 

* Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. i, p. 26. 



The Magnificent Palace. 25 

limestone parallel to each other. At intervals, where 
the elevating force which produced the present con- 
figuration of this region has acted with extreme in- 
tensity, the continuity of the beds became broken, 
and masses of rock were left standing isolated, with 
precipitous escarpments, presenting retreats accessi- 
ble only to the savage inhabitants. ' Diz ' is the 
name applied to natural fortresses of this kind, which 
frequently bear on their summits acres of rich grass 
and springs of delicious water, whither a native chief 
with his adherents can retire in safety in times of 
need, and defend their difficult passes with a handful 
of men against the whole power of the Persian gov- 
ernment itself. 

u Superimposed on the harder limestone rocks are 
beds of a softer nature — marls, rivaling the colored 
sands of our own Isle of Wight in their brilliant and 
variegated aspect ; vast piles of amorphous gypsum 
dazzling the eye with its excessive whiteness, and 
successive layers of red sands alternating with gravel. 
These formations follow the contortions of the harder 
crystalline limestones, lie at extraordinary angles on 
the slopes of the saddles, and fill up the hot, feverish 
vallevs between them. Wherever the highlands of 
Persia are approached from the plains of Mesopota- 
mia, the same formidable barrier of mountains pre- 
sents itself. To attain the high level of that garden 
of roses, which the Persian poet loves to descant 



26 Beauty Crowned. 

on, it is necessary to climb the successive ridges by 
roads scarcely better than goat tracks, which regular 
gradation of ascents is approximately described by 
the Greek historians as Mimahes or 4 ladders.' All the 
great rivers which flow from the east into the Tigris 
have their sources in these mountains, crossing diag- 
onally through the intricacies of the chain. Instead 
of flowing in a south-east direction, along the trough 
which separates two parallel limestone saddles, and 
by this means working out its channel in the soft 
rocks of the gypsiferous and marly series, and round- 
ing the extremity of the saddle where it dips under 
the overlying deposits, each of these rivers takes a 
direction at right angles to its former course, and 
passes directly through the limestone range by means 
of a ' tang,' or gorge, apparently formed for this ex- 
press purpose. On reaching the next succeeding 
gypsum trough, it follows its original south-east 
course for a short distance, and again crosses the next 
chain in the same manner, until it attains the verdant 
plains of Assyria, or Susiana. Many of these tangs 
expose a perpendicular section of one thousand feet 
and upward, and were formed, not by the scooping 
process which attends river action, but by natural 
rents produced by the tension of the crystalline mass 
at the period of its elevation." * 

From the mountains of Susiana the Accadians de- 

* Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, pp. 308, 309. 



The Magnificent Palace. 27 

scended, and settled in the plains of Chaldea. Susa, 
the capital, was on " an open gravel plain about thirty 
miles from the mountains." Three hundred and fifty 
miles north-west of Susa is Nizir, the Chaldean Ar- 
arat. "Nowhere have I seen," says Mr. Loftus, 
" such rich vegetation as that which clothes the ver- 
dant plains of Shush, interspersed with numerous 
plants of a sweet-scented and delicate iris." * This 
flower is one of those called " lily " by the Orientals — 
it is the Iris sisyrynchium, L. The purple is the 
royal color of Persia, and it has been thought that 
the abundance of these flowers , gave the name of 
" Shushan " to this locality. The Hebrew Shoshan, 
Arabic Susan, means any large bright flower. There 
are others, however, who suppose that Shushan is a 
Pehlevi word and means " pleasant," and the neigh- 
boring city called Shuster means "more pleasant." 
This " city of lilies," or " pleasant city," occupied a 
most beautiful spot. The great mound which marks 
the site of its citadel rises one hundred and twenty 
feet above the Shapur. The "tomb of Daniel" is 
on the west, and the forsaken bed of the Eulseus, the 
" river Ulai " of the Bible, on the east. 

"It is difficult to conceive a more imposing 
sight than Susa, as it stood in the days of its Kay- 
anian splendor — its great citadel and columnar edi- 
fices raising their stately heads above groves of date, 

* Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, p. 346. 



28 Beauty Crowned. 

konar, and lemon-trees, surrounded by rich pastures 
and golden seas of corn, and backed by the distant 
snow-clad mountains. Neither Babylon nor Persep- 
olis could compare with Susa in position — watered 
by her noble rivers, producing crops without irriga- 
tion, clothed with grass in spring, and within a mod- 
erate journey of a delightful summer clime. Susa 
vied with Babylon in the riches which the Euphrates 
conveyed to her stores, while Persepolis must have 
been inferior, both in point of commercial position 
and picturesque appearance." * 

The heat of summer is very great at Susa. The 
Greek geographer relates that " lizards and serpents 
at midday in the summer, when the sun is at its 
greatest height, cannot cross the streets of the city 
quick enough to prevent their being burned to death 
midway by the heat."f The lizards of the country 
attract the attention of the traveler. Mr. Loftus says : 
" Clinging to the rocks, basking in the hot sun, or 
fleetly pursuing smaller reptiles, were numerous huge 
lizards (Psammosaurus scincus), lashing their long 
tails and opening their capacious black jaws. . . . 
They live chiefly on snakes, which they pounce on 
suddenly, shake as a terrier does a rat, and* cranch 
from tail to head ; then they suck the mangled body 
down their throats, somewhat after the manner of a 

* Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, p. 347. 
f Strabo, vol. iii, p. 134. 



The Magnificent Palace. 29 

Neapolitan swallowing his national macaroni ! I 
once saw a lizard of this species attack, kill, and 
attempt to swallow a serpent six feet long. After 
gulping for a length of time to get down the tip end 
of its victim's tail, which hung out of its mouth, it 
disgorged its meal, repeated the process of mastica- 
tion, and ultimately, after some hard gasping, suc- 
ceeded in overcoming its difficulty." * 

Ancient inscriptions are to be found among the 
ruins of Susa. In Genesis, Elam is the firstborn of 
Shem. Twice in the fourteenth chapter we find the 
title " king of Elam " given to Chedorlaomer. Ezra 
makes Elamites dependents of the Persian empire. 
Long afterward they appeared among the company 
which gathered in the upper room on the day of 
Pentecost. 

Modern research has revealed a great kingdom. 
In the providence of God this old kingdom has had 
its resurrection. Elam is thought to be a transla- 
tion of the old Accadian name of Susiana, and means 
" highland." The Babylonians, according to tradi- 
tions from the monuments, were oppressed by the 
Elamites under Khumbaba, but were delivered by 
the hero Izdubar, whom the late George Smith iden- 
tifies with Nimrod. There are other traces of the 
early power of Elam. When Assurbanipal conquered 
the country, and took Susa, B. C. 645, he brought 

* Loftus, Chdldea and, Susiana, p. 306. 



30 Beauty Crowned. 

back an image of the goddess Nana which Kudur 
Nakkhunti had carried away when he overran 
Babylonia, B. C. 2280. Again, Kudur-Mabug, king 
of Elam, carried his conquests as far as Phenicia, 
and assumed the titles "Lord of Phenicia" and 
" Lord of Elam." His son Eriaku, Arioch, was king 
of Larsa, Ellasar. The land of Shinar, or Sumir 
of the inscriptions, was under the Septuagint King 
Amarphal, a name which has been recovered in 
Amarpal. The Goim, Guti or Gutium of the in- 
scriptions, at least a part of them, became the As- 
syrians of later times. Their king was Tidal, Sep- 
tuagint Thargal, Accadian Tur-gal, or " great chief." 
Kudur-Mabug is probably Chedorlaomer. He was 
overlord of the allied kings, mentioned above, when 
he extended his conquests to Phenicia,- and was de- 
feated by Abraham. Thus the names of old poten- 
tates rising from the mists of remote antiquity fur- 
nish a most powerful confirmation of the Bible 
records. Elam has demonstrated her right to an his- 
toric place among the nations of Oriental antiquity. 

Susa was a rival of Nineveh at an early period, and 
under the Achsemenian dynasty usurped the great- 
ness of both Nineveh and Babylon. Cleomenes, 
king of Sparta, wished to engage Aristagoras as an 
ally of the Ionians against Darius. The Spartan 
king, in a remarkable speech, said : " Susa, where the 
Persian monarch occasionally resides, and where his 



The Magnificent Palace. 31 

treasures are deposited — make yourself master of 
this city and you may vie in influence with Jupiter 
himself." Alexander the Great, after the battle 
of Arbela, made Susa the depository of the wealth 
which he had gathered from the conquered world. 
Upon entering Susa, Alexander found in the treasury 
immense sums of money, fifty thousand talents of 
silver in ore and ingots and five thousand quintals 
of Hermione purple. After this the city main- 
tained its importance for more than nine hundred 
years, when it was finally deserted in favor of other 
rising cities. 

The Kerkhah, orChoaspes, a noble stream near the 
ancient city, is noted for its pure and sparkling water. 
It is said that the Persian kings would drink no 
other, and when on warlike expeditions carried water 
from this royal stream.* Milton sings of its purity: 

" There Susa by Choaspes' amber stream, 
The drink of none but kings." 

The rivers, Kerkhah on the west, and the .Dizful on 
the east — the Choaspes and the Coprates of the an- 
cients — approach within two and a quarter miles of a 
junction. At the point of their nearest approxima- 
tion stand the mounds of Shush, three and a half 
miles in circumference, or, if various smaller mounds 
are included, covering the whole visible plain of 
Shaour. A branch of the Dizful is the Shapur, or 
* Herodotus, i, 188. 



32 Beauty Crowned. 

Eulaeus, tlie Ulaj of Daniel, where lie saw in vision 
the ram with two horns, and the goat which " came 
from the west on the face of the whole earth, 
and touched not the ground." This stream originally 
passed through Susa, and its ancient bed may still be 
traced. Here are the ruins of the mighty citadel 
where so many valiant heroes fought, and the mag- 
nificent palace where were displayed so much pride, 
wealth, luxury, cruelty, and sensuality. Now there 
are no inhabitants. Lions roar around its palaces ; 
wolves, lynxes, foxes, and jackals prowl amid its 
ruins ; wild boars and porcupines range the silentness 
of its approaches, and francolins and partridges find 
shelter in the deepness of its surrounding coverts. 

The burial-place of the prophet Daniel is acknowl- 
edged by Jews, Sabgeans, and Mohammedans to be at 
Shushan. The consecrated spot is visited by many 
pious pilgrims, who come to offer up prayers and to 
bury their dead in the holy ground. Many tradi- 
tions are current concerning the great prophet. 

Benjamin of Tudela, A. D. 1160-1173, states that 
Shushan then contained " very large and handsome 
buildings of ancient date. It has seven thousand 
Jewish inhabitants, with fourteen synagogues, in 
front of one of which is the sepulcher of Daniel, who 
rests in peace. The river TJlai divides the city into 
two parts, which are connected by a bridge ; that 
portion of it which is inhabited by the Jews contains 



The Magnificent Palace. 33 

markets, to which all trade is confined, and there all 
the rich dwell ; on the other side of the river they are 
poor, because they are deprived of the above-men- 
tioned advantages, and have even no gardens or or- 
chards. These circumstances gave rise to jealousy, 
which was fostered by the belief that all honor and 
riches originated in the possession of the remains of 
the prophet Daniel, who rests in peace, and who was 
buried on the favored side of the river. A request 
was made by the poor for permission to remove the 
sepulcher to the other side, but it was rejected ; upon 
which a war arose, and w r as carried on between the 
two parties for a length of time. This strife lasted 
until ' their souls became loath,' and they came to a 
mutual agreement, by which it was arranged that the 
coffin which contained Daniel's bones should be de- 
posited alternately every year on either side. Both 
parties faithfully adhered to this arrangement, until 
it was interrupted by the interference of San jar Shah- 
ben-Shah, who governs Persia, and holds supreme 
power over forty-nine of its kings. . . . When this 
great emperor San jar, king of Persia, came to Shu- 
shan, and saw that the coffin of Daniel was removed 
from one side to the other, he crossed the bridge 
with a very numerous retinue, accompanied by Jews 
and Mohammedans, and inquired into the reason of 
these proceedings. Upon being told what we have 
now related, he declared it to be derogatory to the 



34: Beauty Crowned. 

honor of Daniel, and commanded that the distance 
between the two banks should be exactly measured, 
that Daniel's coffin should be deposited in another 
coffin made of glass, and that it should be suspended 
from the center of the bridge by chains of iron. A 
place of worship was erected on the spot, open to 
every one who desires to say his prayers, whether he 
be Jew or Gentile : and the coffin of Daniel is sus- 
pended from the bridge unto this very day. The 
king commanded that, in honor of Daniel, nobody 
should be allowed to fish in the river one mile on 
each side of the coffin." 

Other similar traditions are current. The tomb of 
Daniel, in which, however, his remains do not, in all 
probability, rest, is a resort not only for pilgrims who 
lodge there at night, but also for robbers who make it 
the rendezvous for their plundering expeditions.* 

The palace at Susa, at the summit of the great 
platform, fronting a little west of north, and com- 
manding a magnificent view over the Susanian plains 
to the mountains of Luristan, was exhumed by Mr. 
Loftus and General Williams. It proved to have 
been almost an exact duplicate of the Chehl Minar 
of Persepolis. It consisted of several magnificent 
groups of columns having a frontage of three hun- 
dred arid forty-three feet nine inches, and a depth of 
two hundred and forty-four feet. The central phalanx 
* Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, p. 317, et seq. 



The Magnificent Palace. 35 

contained thirty-six columns in six rows. Sixty-four 
feet two inches from this phalanx, on the west, 
north, and east, were an equal number of columns 
arranged in double rows of six each. The capitals of 
the fluted pillars in the eastern colonnade were two 
half-griffins looking in opposite directions. Those of 
the western colonnade were two half-bulls, while those 
of the northern colonnade and central phalanx were 
lotus buds, with pendent leaves, volutes, and two 
half-bulls. The bases of the pillars of the porticoes 
were bell-shaped, and ornamented with double or 
triple rows of lotus, while the bases of the central 
pillar were square. The central pillar cluster and 
the three porches were separately roofed. Beams 
stretched from pillar to pillar supported roof and 
entablature. There were no walls, but the great pal- 
ace was open to all the winds of heaven. Such ap- 
pear to have been the main features of the palace. 

"Nothing could be more appropriate than this 
method at Susa and Persepolis, the spring residences 
of the Persian monarchs. It must be considered that 
these columnar halls were the equivalents of the 
modern throne-rooms, that here all public business 
was dispatched, and that here the king might sit and 
enjoy the beauties of the landscape. With the rich 
plains of Susa and Persepolis before him, he could 
well, after his winter's residence at Babylon, dispense 
with massive walls, which would only check the 



36 Beauty Crowned. 

warm, fragrant breeze from those verdant prairies 
adorned with the choicest flowers. A massive roof, 
covering the whole expanse of columns, would be 
too cold and dismal, whereas curtains around the cen- 
tral group would serve to admit both light and 
warmth. Nothing can be conceived better adapted 
to the climate or the season." * 

" Such edifices as the Chehl Minar at Persepolis, 
and its duplicate at Susa — where long vistas of col- 
umns met the eye on every side, and the great cen- 
tral cluster was supported by lighter detached groups, 
combining similarity of form with some variety of 
ornament, where richly colored drapings contrasted 
with the cool gray stone of the building, and a golden 
roof overhung a pavement of many hues — must have 
been handsome, from whatever side they were con 
templated, and for general richness and harmony of 
effect may have compared favorably with any edifices 
which, up to the time of their construction, had been 
erected in any country or by any people." f 

To complete the picture of this palace, other 
ruins, especially those at Persepolis, must be studied. 
The great palace was situated on a terraced plat- 
form " composed of solid masses of hewn stone which 
were united by metal clamps, probably of iron or 
lead." This platform is ascended by broad stair- 

* Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, p. 315. 

f Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii, p. 328. 



The Magnificent Palace. 37 

ways elaborately ornamented with mythologic fig- 
ures of lions devouring bulls, guardsmen, rows of 
cypress-trees, rosettes, processions of the nations 
bringing tribute to the great king, attendants carry- 
ing articles for the table or the toilet, and inscrip- 
tions commemorating his own glorious deeds or those 
of his ancestors, and recognizing the gods to whom 
they owed their conquests and glory. 

On this broad elevated platform were the palaces, 
for there were several at Persepolis, and probably at 
the other capitals. The massive walls, the spacious 
rooms, the reception halls, the throne-room, the guard 
rooms, the stair-ways, the pillars and colonnades, the 
bases and capitals, the porticoes and chambers, the 
entablatures and inscriptions, the sculptures and orna- 
mentations, the furnishment and garnishment, the 
throne itself, the plating of gold, the beautiful hang- 
ings of purple, the display, and magnificence, and 
glory, and power, and wealth — in all this the palace 
of Susa far outdoes the palaces of modern times. 

The royal palace was furnished with a magnificence 
commensurate with the wealth and pride of the king. 
The floors were paved with precious stones of blue, 
white, black, and red, so arranged as to form beauti- 
ful patterns. Richest carpeting was placed here and 
there so as to add to the appearance of comfort and 
luxury. Magnificent hangings of white, green, and vio- 
let, fastened with fine linen and purple cords to silver 



38 



Beauty Crowned. 



rings, stretched from pillar of marble to pillar of mar- 
ble, screening the guests, and at the same time ad- 




TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS. 



mitting the cool breezes of summer. The ceilings 
of the rooms were covered with plates of gold. 

Four pillars of gold, inlaid with precious stones, 
supported an embroidered canopy with inwrought 
mythologic figures of bulls and lions and other ob- 
jects, under which stood the golden throne of the 
king. Couches resplendent with silver and gold 
filled the rooms, on which guests reclined at ease. 
Over the royal bed in the private chamber of the 
monarch was the golden vine with the grapes imi- 
tated by stones of priceless value. It was the work 
of Theodore the Samian, and the gift of Pythius, a 
rich Lydian, to Darius. A golden plane-tree, also 
the gift of Pythius, was the companion of the vine. 
Here, too, was the celebrated bowl of solid gold. 



The Magnificent Palace. 39 

All were rare works of the highest metallurgical 
art. 

The throne was of silver and gold. It was an ele- 
vated chair, without arms, but with a high back, 
cushioned and ornamented with a fringe. Along the 
back and legs were carvings or moldings which ex- 
hibited little artistic skill. The legs terminated 1 in 
lions' feet resting on fluted hemispheres. The sides 
of the chair below the seat were paneled and plain. 

The feet of the monarch rested on a footstool the 
legs of which terminated in bulls' feet. Perhaps 
originally a religions meaning attached to this sym- 
bolism. Winged human-headed bulls and lions of 
large size guarded the entrances to Assyrian palaces. 
On the portal was a figure strangling a lion. The 
winged bull symbolized Ninip, the Chaldean Her- 
cules, perhaps also represented in the figure stran- 
gling the lion. He was "the crusher of opponents, 
he who rolls along the mass of heaven and earth, 
treader of the wide earth, head of nations, bestower 
of scepters. Lord of lords, the deity who changes not 
his purposes, the light of heaven and earth, the hero 
of the gods, lord over the face of the whirlwind, son 
of El, the Sublime." 

Nergal was symbolized by the winged human- 
headed lion. He was " the god of arms and bows, 
the great hero, king of fight, master of battles, cham- 
pion of the gods, god of the chase." These gigantic 



40 Beauty Crowned. 

figures may have had a talis^nanic value. The Outhae- 
ans, according to the Bible, worshiped tergal, The 
natural lion was more frequently used as a symbol of 
Nergal than the winged lion. These two, then, 
Ninip and Nergal, the gods of war and of the chase, 
were the foundation of the Persian throne ; or they 
remained as survivals of Chaldean and Assyrian sym- 
bolism. 

The ancient Lydians used the same symbolism. 
The molten sea of the Hebrews was supported by 
"twelve oxen," "and on the borders that were be- 
tween the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims.'' 
Solomon made a throne of ivory overlaid with " best 
gold ; " " two lions stood beside the stays. And 
twelve lions stood there on the one side and the other 
upon the six steps." The palace of the Parthian city 
llatra had upon its south side eight human-headed 
bulls. The north side is so much in ruins that the 
character of its ornamentation cannot be determined. 

The kings of Parthia, probably, imitated the Per- 
sian kings in the magnificence of their palaces, though 
they must have fallen far behind in the wealth of dis- 
play. Philostratus says of the royal palace of Baby- 
lon : " The palace is roofed with brass, and a bright 
light flashes from it. It has chambers for the women, 
and chambers for the men, and porticoes, partly glit- 
tering with silver, partly with cloth-of-gold embroid- 
eries, partly with solid slabs of gold, let into the 



The Magnificent Palace. 41 

walls, like pictures. The subjects of these embroid- 
eries are taken from the Greek mythology, and in- 
clude representations of Andromeda, Amymone, and 
of Orpheus, who is frequently repeated. . . . Datis 
is, moreover, represented, destroying Naxos with his 
fleet, and Artaphernes besieging Eretria, and Xerxes 
gaining his famous victories. You behold the occu- 
pation of Athens, and the battle of Thermopylae, and 
other points still more characteristic of the great Per- 
sian war, rivers drunk up and disappearing from the 
face of the earth, and a bridge stretched across the 
sea, and a canal cut through Athos. . . . One chamber 
for the men has a roof fashioned into a vault like the 
heaven, composed entirely of sapphires, which are 
the bluest of stones, and resemble the sky in color. 
Golden images of the gods whom they worship are 
set up about the vault, and show like stars in the 
firmament. This is the chamber in which the king 
delivers his judgments. Four golden magic-wheels 
hang from its roof, and threaten the monarch with 
the Divine Nemesis, if he exalts himself above the 
condition of man. These wheels are called 'the 
tongues of the gods,' and are set in their places by 
the magi who frequent the palace." 

Polybius says that the whole wood-work of the 
palace at Ecbatana was covered with plates of gold or 
silver, and that the building was roofed with silver 
tiles. The temple of Anaitis was in the same man- 



42 Beauty Crowned. 

ner richly adorned.* After the successive plunder- 
ings of Darius, Alexander, and Seleucus Nicator, 
the tiles and plating of the palace at Ecbatana 
brought to Antiochus the Great nearly five millions 
of dollars. f 

This capital city is called " Shushan" seven times, 
and " the city Shushan " twice, in the Book of Esther. 
The expression " Shushan the palace" occurs ten times. 
The latter was the royal quarter, and contained palaces, 
gardens, areas, residences of the officers of the court 
with their families and servants, temples, and various 
dependent buildings. The whole area was encom- 
passed by a strong wall, and protected by towers and 
the lofty Acropolis at the western angle. 

" This was Shushan the castle, the upper town, the 
royal quarter — 'Shushan the palace' of the A. Y. 
Here Daniel dwelt (Dan. viii, 2), and at the western 
foot of the Acropolis on the bank of the Shapur is 
his traditional grave. Here Nehemiah also found a 
temporary residence. Neh. i, 1. When 'the great 
king ' sojourned at Shushan, doubtless many thousand 
people dwelt within this space, just as during the 
feasts at Jerusalem prodigious multitudes, living as 
Orientals can, were able to find room in the holy 
city. Ctesias tells us ;£ that the king of Persia fur- 
nished provisions daily for twenty-five thousand men, 

* Polybius, x; xxvii, 10-12. f Herodotus, i, 98, note. 

X Barnes upon Dan. v, 1. 



The Magnificent Palace. 43 

all of whom we presume were never at one time resi- 
dent in the upper city." * 

The site of " Shushan the palace " is probably the 
whole diamond-shaped area on the east of the Shapur, 
with its acute angles fronting north and south, and 
marked by three mounds. In the northern angle is 
the palace mound, some four thousand feet in cir- 
cumference. Here was the palace which we have 
described. Trilingual inscriptions found upon pedes- 
tals ascribe its erection to Darius Hystaspis. Like 
the famous Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis, the Chehl 
Minar, this was doubtless a Hall of State as distin- 
guished from the royal residence. It seems also to 
have been used for religious purposes, for it is called 
a temple in the inscriptions upon the pedestals, and 
contained effigies of the gods.f Darius is represented 
upon the sculptures at Persepolis as a pontiff king. 

In the western angle of the diamond is the citadel 
mound, the loftiest of all, two thousand eight hun- 
dred and fifty feet in circuit at the summit. Occu- 
pying the whole south-eastern side of the diamond is 
" the great platform," reaching an elevation of from 
forty to seventy feet. Each side is about three thou- 
sand feet in length and the area about sixty acres. 
This diamond-shaped series of mounds includes above 
one hundred acres. This is " Shushan the palace " 

* The Lowell Hebrew Club, The Boole of Esther, p. 99. 
f Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, pp. 371, 372. 



44: Beauty Crowned. 

as distinguished from "the city Shushan." It was, 
doubtless, the strong-hold of the city. 

The position and architectural character of the 
Hall of State have been determined, but we know 
little of the other buildings of this royal quarter ex- 
cept by inference from discoveries at other capitals. 
Among other buildings there must have been a 
royal palace, and to this palace we must transfer so 
much of description as evidently belongs to a domi- 
ciliary residence. Such descriptions have been ap- 
plied to the single building which has been un- 
earthed, but certainly without reason. 

Strabo says : " The following mentioned by Poly- 
cletus are perhaps customary practices : At Snsa 
each king builds in the citadel, as memorials of the 
administration of his government, a dwelling for 
himself, treasure-houses, and magazines for tribute 
collected (in kind)." * Xerxes had a royal palace at 
Persepolis, and probably at Susa. 

The Hall of State — the heih'dn — seems to be men- 
tioned but twice in the story of Esther. The great 
feast was held in the court of the garden of this hall. 
The queen's palace, where she entertained the king 
and Haman was probably south-east of this hall and 
separated from it by a garden. Esther i, 5 ; vii, 7, 8. 
The king's palace — the hayith — was a separate build- 
ing. So likewise the first house of the women and 

* Strabo, vol. iii, p. 139. 



The Magnificent Palace. 45 

the second bouse of the women. These several 
buildings with their courts and gardens were closely 
connected, and probably all situated in the northern 
angle of the diamond. Their exact location is conject- 
ural. The main entrance to this seraglio department 
of " Shushan the palace" — Shushan the herah — was 
a gate which was in front and at some distance from 
the Hall of State. At Persepolis, and doubtless here 
also, the propylon " consisted of a square hall inclos- 
ing a group of four pillars." The gate was through 
this hall, or more probably by its side. At this gate 
a court was held. Guards and servants were there, 
and it was perhaps the only public entrance to the 
seraglio quarter. There may have been another gate 
on the east in connection with the king's palace, 
which may be located provisionally in the north-east 
corner of this palace mound. If so, this second may 
be " the king's gate." Midway between the king's 
palace and the Hall of State we may locate the 
queen's palace, west of which was the second house 
of the women, and between the last and the king's 
palace the first house of the women. 



46 Beauty Crowned. 



III. 

THE BANQUET OF WINE. 

" The king made a feast." — Esther i, 5. 

" The heart of the king was merry with wine." — Esther i, 10. 

Oriental nations are noted for the hospitality of 
the people. Abraham made an impromptu feast for 
the " three men " who tarried with him when on their 
journey to Sodom. Guests were received and dis- 
missed with goodly viands, and departed " with mirth, 
and with songs, and with tabret, and with harp." 

A feast graced seasons of domestic joy. Birthdays 
and marriages were celebrated with special brilliancy. 
At sheep-shearing the guests often became " merry 
with wine." Sacrifices to the gods were accompanied 
with gladsome feasts. There were vintage feasts, and 
the solemnity of the funeral was relieved by feasting. 
Every three years, among the Hebrews, there were 
charitable feasts, to which they invited the Levite, the 
stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. The rich 
vied With each other in the brilliancy of their enter- 
tainments, and freely poured out their wealth to pro- 
cure the rarest viands and the products of the highest 
culinary art. Kings impoverished their subjects that 
they might feast their favorites and noble guests 



The Banquet of Wine. 47 

sumptuously. In luxurious living the later Persians 
rivaled all other peoples. 

When Darius Codomannus went out with his 
mighty army to meet Alexander the Great at Issus 
he was accompanied with his whole family, harem, 
and court, and all the paraphernalia of wealth, lux- 
ury, and splendor. In his immense baggage train 
were six hundred mules and three hundred camels 
laden with gold and silver. When the conqueror 
took Persepolis it required five thousand camels and 
an immense number of mules to convey the royal 
treasures of the Persian king to Susa and Ecbatana. 

When Cyrus wished to persuade the Persians to 
revolt he invited them to an assembly, and com- 
manded them to bring their reaping-hooks. Herod- 
otus relates : " When, in obedience to the orders 
which they had received, the Persians came with their 
reaping-hooks, Cyrus led them to a tract of ground, 
about eighteen or twenty furlongs each way, covered 
with thorns, and ordered them to clear it before the 
day was out. They accomplished their task, upon 
which he issued a second order to them, to take the 
bath the day following and again come to him. 
Meantime he collected together all his father's flocks, 
both sheep and goats, and all his oxen, and slaugh- 
tered them, and made ready to give an entertainment 
to the entire Persian army. Wine, too, and bread of 
the choicest kinds were prepared for the occasion. 



48 Beauty Crowned. 

When the morrow came and the Persians appeared, 
he bade them recline upon the grass and enjoy them- 
selves. After the feast was over he requested them 
to tell him ' which they liked best, to-day's work or 
yesterday's ? ' They answered that ' the contrast was 
indeed strong : yesterday brought them nothing but 
what was bad, to-day every thing that was good.' 
Cyrus instantly seized on their reply, and laid bare 
his purpose in these words : ' Ye men of Persia, thus 
do matters stand with you. If you choose to hearken 
to my words, you may enjoy these and ten thousand 
similiar delights, and never condescend to any slavish 
toil ; but if you will not hearken, prepare yourselves 
for unnumbered toils as hard as yesterday's. Now, 
therefore, follow my bidding and be free.' " * Thus 
Cyrus feasted the whole Persian army and persuaded 
them to strike for freedom from Median rule. 

In Judith we read of a great feast appointed by 
Nebuchadnezzar after a signal victory, at which his 
whole army was royally entertained during one hun- 
dred and twenty days (Judith i, 16). Belshazzar 
feasted a thousand lords, and Alexander ten thousand 
men.. 

Usually the king of Persia dined alone, and only 

on special occasions was he served with his guests. 

Sometimes he admitted the queen, the queen-mother, 

and one or two children — less frequently even his 

* Herodotus, i, 126. 



The Banquet of Wine. 



49 



brothers. At a." banquet of wine " his intimate 
companions were privileged guests. The king re- 
clined at the feast on a golden-footed couch and drank 
the wine of Helbon, while his guests, seated on the 
floor, were less nobly served. At the great banquets 
the less distinguished of the company were enter- 
tained in the outer court, accessible to the public, 
while the more distinguished were admitted to the 
king's private apartments and feasted in the chamber 
opposite the king's chamber, from which they were 
separated by a curtain. On certain great occasions 
the king threw off his reserve and presided openly at 
the banquet, talking and drinking with all, and mak- 
ing merry with his friends, who reclined on couches 
of silver and gold, and drank u royal 
wine " from golden cups. Oriental 
rules of courtesy and the personal 
will of the monarch were the law at 
these feasts. 

The king himself had the choicest 
luxuries, which he did not often 
share with the multitude. The wheat 
of Assos, the wine of Helbon, water 
from distant streams, salt from the 
oasis of Amnion, and every thing 
rarest and best, were for his table. 
The delicacies of the empire were at his command. 

His amusements were few, and not especially en- 
4 




Persian King. 



50 Beauty Crowned. 

nobling. He played at dice with his near relatives. 
The wager was sometimes very heavy — thousands of 
gold and valuable slaves. He amused himself by 
carving in wood. His most noble sport was hunting 
the lion and the wild boar, but sometimes he stooped 
to pursue less noble beasts of the chase. 

According to Kawlinson : " At the present day, 
among the bons vivants of Persia, it is usual to sit 
for hours before dinner drinking: wine and eatino- 
dried fruits, such as filberts, almonds, pistachio nuts, 
melon-seeds, etc. A party, indeed, often sits down at 
seven o'clock and the dinner is not brought in till 
eleven. The dessert dishes, intermingled as they are 
with highly seasoned delicacies, are supposed to have 
the effect of stimulating the appetite, but, in reality, 
the solid dishes, which are served up at the end of the 
feast, are rarely tasted. The passion, too, for wine- 
drinking is as marked among the Persians of the pres- 
ent day, notwithstanding the prohibitions of the 
Prophet, as it was in the time of Herodotus. It is 
quite appalling, indeed, to see the quantity of liquor 
which some of these topers habitually consume, and 
they usually prefer spirits to wine." Herodotus says : 
"It is also their general practice to deliberate upon 
affairs of weight when they are drunk ; and then on 
the morrow, when they are sober, the decision to 
which they came the night before is put before them 
by the master of the house in which it was made ; 



The Banquet of Wine. 51 

and if it is then approved they act on it ; if not, they 
set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at 
their first deliberation, but in this case they always 
reconsider the matter under the influence of wine." 
According to Tacitus, who seems to approve the cus- 
tom, the Germans had a similar practice, and Plato 
says that it prevailed among the Thracians, the 
Scythians, the Celts, the Iberians, and the Carthagin- 
ians. Daris of Samos says that at the feast of Mithras, 
held once a year, the king was bound to get drunk.* 

Xerxes was ever fond of display. He gave rich 
presents to a beautiful plane-tree ; he caused to be 
erected a throne of white marble upon which to sit 
while reviewing .his army ; the spears of the soldiers 
who were near his presence were adorned with gold 
and silver apples and pomegranates ; and every tiling 
was on a scale of the greatest splendor. The follow- 
ing circumstance is related. The war-tent of Xerxes 
was left with Mardonius in Greece, and fell into the 
hands of the enemy. " When Pausanius, therefore, 
saw the tent witli its adornments of gold and silver, 
and its hangings of divers colors, he gave command- 
ment to the bakers and the cooks to make him ready 
a banquet in such fashion as was their wont for Mar- 
donius. Then they made ready as they were bidden, 
and Pausanius, beholding the couches of gold and 
silver daintily decked out with their rich covertures, 

* Herodotus, i, 133. 



52 Beauty Crowned. 

and the tables of gold and silver laid, and the feast 
itself prepared with all magnificence, was astonished 
at the good things which were set before him, and, 
being in a pleasant mood, gave commandment to his 
own followers to make ready a Spartan supper. When 
the suppers were both served, and it was apparent 
how vast a difference lay between the two, Pausanius 
laughed and sent his servants to call to him the Greek 
generals. On their coming he pointed to the two 
boards and said : i I sent for you, O Greeks, to show 
you the folly of this Median captain, who, when he 
enjoyed such fare as this, must needs come here to rob 
us of our penury.' " * 

The great king had returned from his successful 
campaign in Egypt. His influential friends urged 
other and greater conquests. He could extend Ins 
dominion to the w^est and annex Greece to the vast 
empire he inherited from his father. He called an 
assembly to deliberate upon his gigantic scheme. He 
could take an inventory of his possessions, listen to 
reports from distant provinces, discuss plans, raise 
an army and gather munitions of war, and be ready 
to take the field. He could impress subject princes 
with his own glorious majesty, exhibit his royal power, 
display the magnificence of his court, lavish his wealth 
in the regal splendor of such an entertainment as the 
world had never seen, and bind powerful friends to 
* Herodotus, ix, 82. 



The Banquet of Wine. 53 

his interests by the distribution of kingly presents. 
Princes, nobles, warriors, and statesmen came from a 
hundred and seven and twenty provinces, from India 
even unto Ethiopia. The elite of the army were 
there ; the nobles, the magnates, and the grandees of 
the kingdom were present, " when he showed the 
riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his 
excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and 
four-score days." After this there was a still more 
royal feast of seven days given to all the people that 
were present in " Shushan the palace." 

This was the celebrated assembly which discussed 
the question of the invasion of Greece. At first 
the king was disposed to follow the advice of 
Mardonius, who favored the expedition, but upon 
consideration he yielded to the more sober reasoning 
of Artabanus, who feared the consequences of an 
invasion of Europe. Afterward, when they had been 
deliberating " many days," Xerxes was led to change 
his mind by a vision which stood over him every 
night. Then, by his command, Artabanus, clad in the 
kingfe garments, took his seat upon the royal throne, 
and then lay down to sleep upon the royal bed, to see 
whether the same vision would make him a visit. 
As he fell asleep the same dream appeared to him as 
had troubled the rest of the king, and addressed him 
in words of stern rebuke and threatening. " In such 
words, as Artabanus thought, the vision threatened 



54 Beauty Crowned. 

him, and then endeavored to burn out his eyes with 
red-hot irons. At this he shrieked, and, leaping 
from his couch, hurried to Xerxes, and sitting down 
at his side, gave him a full account of the vision." 
Henceforth active preparations were made for the 
expedition. 

"This counterfeit phantom frightens Xerxes out 
of the conclusion of his second thought and his better 
judgment, and overcomes the maturer wisdom of 
Artabanus, his uncle. It is this, in fact, that seems 
to turn the scale, and settle the point that the great 
expedition shall be undertaken. Superstition is potent 
in its way ; but that a phantom should have assailed 
a man of the courage and wisdom of Artabanus with 
hot irons, and alarmed him with the attempt to burn 
out his eyes, and actually have succeeded in driving 
him, with a loud outcry, from his couch and his 
room, and been regarded by him still without question 
as a veritable apparition, is strongly suggestive of a 
brain from which the fumes of the wine-cup have not 
wholly passed away." * 

This banquet at Susa was doubtless given in the 
early spring of B. C. 483 — there were thrones of the 
kingdom also at Ecbatana, Persepolis, and Babylon, 
where the court was sometimes held — and was a true 
symposiinn, or drinking feast. After keeping open 
house for six months, he appointed the crowning 

* Herod., vii, 8-19 ; Loivell Htbrew Club, TJie Book of Esther, p. 20. 



The Banquet of Wine. 55 

feast of seven days "in the court of the garden of 
the King's palace," the paradise, or garden, con- 
nected with the Hall of State. 

The king himself, a man remarkable for his natu- 
ral beauty, was the cynosure of all eyes. The whole 
dress was such as to give grace and dignity to the 
person. The robe, or "Median garment," was of 
royal purple, and probably of richest silk and em- 
broidered with gold. It was close-fitting at the neck 
and chest, with loose, open sleeves, and with ample 
long-flowing folds extending below the ankles and 
confined about the waist with a girdle. The tunic, 
or under-garment, reached from the neck to the knee 
and covered the arms tightly to the wrists. It was 
purple mixed with white — royal colors — and of 
rich material. The trousers were of crimson, and the 
long tapering shoes of deep yellow or saffron, but- 
toned in front and reaching high in the instep. The 
distinguishing feature of the dress of the king, by 
which it specially differed from that of the nobles, 
was the peculiar head-dress. It was " a tall stiff cap, 
slightly swelling as it ascended, flat at top and termi- 
nating in a ring or circle which projected beyond the 
lines of the sides. Round it, probably near the bot- 
tom, was worn a fillet or band — the diadem proper — 
which was blue, spotted with white." Such a head- 
dress would readily distinguish the king from the 
members of his court. They w T ore simple fillets, or 



56 



Beauty Crowned. 



comparatively low caps. The other garments of the 
king, already described, though of richer material and 
somewhat different in color, yet closely resembled the 
dress of the nobles. 

The monarch was further distinguished by the 
golden scepter which, in the representations which 
have been discovered, is frequently seen in the king's 
hand. It was a simple rod five feet long, ornamented 
by a ball at the 
top and taper- 
ing nearly to a 
point at the bot- 
tom. The king 
held it in his 
right hand near 
the thick end ; 
the thin end, 
whether he sat 
or walked, he 
rested on the 
ground in front 
of him, the 
scepter sloping 
to the ground. 

The use of the 
parasol was also 
confined to the R0YAL PARAS0L - 

king. It had a long thick stem terminated by a 




The Banquet of Wine. 



57 



peculiar ornament at the top. The shade was 
tent-like in shape and without curtain or tassel. It 
was kept open by curved supports, and on great occa- 
sions was held over the king's head by an attendant 
who walked behind. 

On all state occasions, when the king received 
embassadors, royal or noble visi- 
tors, and high officers of the court, 
when he received reports from 
.secretaries or 
governors of 
provinces or 
military lead- 
ers, when he issued com- 
mands or royal edicts, the 
diadem was upon his 
king with attendants, brow, the golden scepter 
in his hand, and the royal parasol over 
his head. 

The king wore golden earrings, often 
set with precious jewels, bejeweled golden 
bracelets, and a twisted golden collar. In 
his girdle he carried a short sword, the 
sheath of which was formed of a single 
precious stone, jasper, agate, 
lazuli. 

The parasol-bearer and the fan-bearer, 
who also carried " the royal pocket-handkerchief," 





Fan, or Fly- 
chaser. 




58 Beauty Crowned. 

were always near the king. " The fan, or fly-chaser, 
had a long straight handle ornamented with a sort 
of beading, which held a brush of some 
springy fibrous matter. The bearer, whose 
place was directly behind the monarch, 
held his implement, which bent forward 
gracefully, nearly at arm's-length over the 
master's head." Sometimes the fan-bearer 
scent-bot- held in his hand a bottle of perfumery. 
This was probably placed in the water 
wherewith the king and his guests washed before 
meals. 

The Persians made great use of perfumeries. When 
the royal tiara was not in use, it was laid away with 
a mixture of myrrh and labyzus. The Persians were 
supposed to have been the inventors of aromatic un- 
guents. To give himself a beautiful complexion, the 
king, according to Pliny, anointed his person with 
an unguent composed of lion's fat, palm wine, saffron, 
and helianthus. At Arbela, Alexander found among 
the camp equipage of Darius a case of unguents. The 
" royal ointment" of the Parthian kings was composed 
of cinnamon, spikenard, myrrh, cassia, gum styrax, 
saffron, cardamom, wine, honey, and sixteen other 
ingredients. 

The tribute of frankincense from Arabia was a 
thousand talents' weight annually, much of which was 
doubtless required by the royal court. As was the 



The Banquet of Wine. 59 

case in Egypt and Greece, so in Persia, unguent vases 
were of choicest alabaster. 

There were many other officers of the court less 
closely attached to the person of the king — the stew- 
ard of the household, the master of the horse, the 
chief eunuch, who had charge of the harem ; spies, who 
kept the king informed concerning all that transpired 
about the court and in the kingdom, and hence called 
his "eyes and ears ;" secretaries, who wrote the king's 
letters, edicts, and books of records ; messengers ; ushers, 
who introduced with becoming formalities strangers 
to the king ; " tasters," who tried all the food placed 
before him to guard against poison ; cup-bearers, who 
poured out his wine ; chamberlains, who assisted him 
to retire ; and musicians, who amused him with harp 
and song. There were also multitudes of guards, 
door-keepers, huntsmen, grooms, cooks, and various 
domestic servants. And then we must add visitors 
and guests, princes and nobles, captives and foreign 
refugees, hostages, embassadors, and travelers. In- 
deed, we are informed that the king fed daily at his 
palace fifteen thousand persons, at a cost of four hun- 
dred talents. A thousand beasts were slaughtered for 
each meal, besides poultry, ostriches, and other birds. 
These estimates, however, may refer to special feasts, 
and not to the ordinary repasts. The great feast 
would require an unusually large number of attend- 
ants. 



60 Beauty Crowned. 

" Solomon's provision for one day was thirty meas- 
ures of fine flour, and three-score measures of meal, 
ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and 
a hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and 
fallow-deer, and fatted fowl." 1 Kings iv, 22, 23. 

Perhaps there were none of the poorer class present 
at this banquet. The ordinary dress of the poorer 
class was the tunic and trousers, a felt cap or a mere 
linen or muslin rag for the head, a strap about the 
waist, and high shoes upon the feet. The richer class 
of Persia adopted much of the costume of the court — 
flowing robes, embroidered tiaras, also drawers, shirts, 
socks, and gloves. They wore collars and bracelets of 
gold, while the sheaths and handles of their swords 
and daggers were also of gold, perhaps adorned with 
gems. The trappings of their horses were of the 
richest character, the bit being often of solid gold. 
Their tables were inlaid with silver and gold ; they 
had gorgeous couches, soft carpets, and gold and sil- 
ver plate. 

In their early history the Persians were temperate 
in eating and drinking. Wheaten bread, barley cakes, 
meat, and water satisfied them, and they had but one 
meal each day. The poorer class subsisted largely 
upon the natural fruits of the soil. Luxury and self- 
indulgence came in later. Wine became the common 
beverage, and they prided themselves on the amount 
they could drink. 



The Banquet of Wine. 61 

The usual rules of court etiquette were largely 
adopted among the people, and they enjoyed the same 
liberty with respect to wives, concubines, and eunuchs. 
The education of their sons consisted in those manly 
exercises by which they would be prepared for war, 
and certain moral teachings drawn from standard leg- 
endary poems. They cared naught for trade and 
commerce, and labor was for slaves. "With the advance 
of luxury, they curled their hair and beards, or even 
wore false hair, beards, and mustachios. Cosmetics 
beautified the complexion, and coloring matter on the 
eyelids increased the apparent size and brilliancy of 
their eyes. And there came absolute rule, tyranny, 
barbarity, a blunted moral sense, horrible punish- 
ments, treachery, brutality, and nameless crimes. 

The Hall of State, the royal palace, the many build- 
ings of the northern angle of the diamond, and their 
surrounding paradises, were the scene of all the 
beauty, pride, wealth, luxury, and glory of the great 
empire of kingdoms. Emeralds were gathered from 
Egypt, Media, and Cyprus ; green rubies from Bac- 
tria, and red rubies and carbuncles from Caria ; opals 
and sapphires from Cyprus, and opals also from Egypt 
and Asia Minor; amethysts from Cyprus, Egypt, 
Galatia, and Armenia, and sards from Babylonia ; 
jaspers from Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Persia proper, 
and the lapis lazuli from Egypt, Cyprus, and Media; 
agates from Carmania, Susiana, and Armenia, and the 



62 Beauty Crowned. 

topaz from Upper Egypt ; jets from Lycia, and gar- 
nets and beryls from Armenia. These were wrought 
into most precious jewelry and blazed on the breasts 
of Persian beauties. They adorned bracelets, armlets, 
chains for the neck, and sheaths for swords. Pearls 
from the ocean lent themselves to assist in this display 
of wealth, beauty, and magnificence. The floors were 
mosaics of valuable stones. The tables were gold 
and silver and set with gems. Vases of agate filled 
with skillfully prepared perfumes steeped the air in 
fragrance. Flowers of rich colors and sweet aroma 
smiled in their more modest, winning beauty. The 
mountains and deserts of Thibet and India were swept 
for their gold. Rivers of Lydia gave up their wealth. 
The mines of Kerman, Armenia, Asia Minor, and the 
Elburz brought their silver. Damascus sent the most 
valuable marble. Phenicia sent her purple, and 
Babylonia her embroideries rich in their revelations 
of mythologic lore. The rich carpets came from 
the looms of Babylon and Sardis ; the splendid shawls 
from Kashmir and India ; the fine linen from Bor- 
sippa and Egypt ; the coverlets from Damascus ; the 
muslins from Babylonia; and the noble cedar from 
Lebanon. 

So splendid are the preparations that guest after 
guest, as they arrive, can but exclaim in astonish- 
ment and wonder : u White and violet awnings, fast- 
ened with cords of fine linen and purple to rings of 



The Banquet of Wine. 63 

silver and pillars of white marble ; conches of gold and 
silver on a pavement of blue stone, and white marble, 
and alabaster, and red stone ! And they gave drink 
in vessels of gold, even vessels differing from one an- 
other ; and royal wine was abundant, according to the 
hand of the king." Esther i, 6, 7. Strabo says of the 
Persians : " Their couches, drinking-cups, and other 
articles are so brilliantly ornamented that they gleam 
with gold and silver." * 

The stones for these columns and pavements must 
have been brought from a great distance. As speci- 
mens of the mineral relics of Shushan, Loftus men- 
tions white marble, red sandstone, Oriental alabaster, 
polished basalt, blue limestone, and yellow limestone, f 

The king, crowned with the diadem of empire, clad 
in richest attire, numerously attended, proud and 
selfish, scepter in hand, " sat on the throne of his 
kingdom," as he sat to view the battles of Thermopy- 
lae and Salamis, and " showed the riches of his glo- 
rious kingdom and the honor of his excellent maj- 
esty." Nobles and princes from the one hundred and 
twenty-seven provinces, in Median garments, graced 
the occasion by their presence. The feast was the 
grandest held by Xerxes during his reign. It lasted 
one hundred and eighty days, and culminated in a 
special seven-days' feast of unexampled magnificence. 

* Strabo, vol. iii, p. 139. 

f Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, pp. 346, 376, 404, 408, 409, 415. 



64 Beauty Crowned. 

The king drank the wine of Helbon. His guests 
received " royal wine in abundance," poured into 
golden goblets from silver decanters. Nuts gathered 
from many forests were served in dishes of agate and 
onyx. Luscious tropical fruits, inviting to the palate, 
were displayed on golden and silver plates. Figs, 
dates, sweetmeats, and all delicacies were passed again 
and again. All grains, fowl of every wing, flesh of 
many kinds of beasts, all foods of the soil — these pre- 
pared in the highest style of culinary art, the praise 
of the epicure — were served in many courses. 

Servants hasten to and fro to do their master's bid- 
ding. The voice of song is heard. The shout of 
laughter echoes through the halls and gardens. There 
is many a sally of wit. And still flows the royal 
wine. Guests come from distant provinces and re- 
turn. Suns rise and set. Weeks and months pass. 
There are the same hurry and excitement and prodi- 
gality and courtesies and compliments and beauty and 
pride and revelry and boasting of " excellent majes- 
ty." Outside the palace, throughout the vast empire, 
there are thousands of men, women, and children 
starving for want of bread. What cares the king ? 
Men, women, and children are of no value, except as 
they administer to his personal enjoyment. And so 
the feast continues and, as ever, the royal wine flows. 
Garlands delicately woven by skillful fingers crown 
those who are mighty to drink wine. Festoons of 



The Banquet of Wine. 65 

many flowers and evergreens arch the broad entrances, 
entwine the pillars, and leap from colonnade to col- 
onnade. At night lights from Oriental chandeliers, 
shining upon tables and ceilings of gold, seem to 
start up ten thousand fires, and to make every pearl 
and gem and chain and cup and plate of. gold a blaz- 
ing star. The eye is wearied and almost blinded by 
the dazzling splendors and blazing beauty. 

But affairs of state must occupy some portion of 
the time of the king and his counselors. They con- 
sult concerning the glory of the kingdom, and espe- 
cially concerning the conquest of Greece, upon which 
the king is about to enter. They talk of the great 
Cambvses and the greater Cyrus, and the conversation 
seems to inspire the king with the determination to 
excel them all in the glory of his majesty. He will 
raise an army such as the world has never seen, and 
conquer Europe and annex it to the empire. He re- 
ceives reports from all the provinces, issues edicts, and 
makes requisitions for troops, ships, gold, and sup- 
plies. He punishes criminals and pardons offenders. 
lie raises some to positions of honor and reduces oth- 
ers to poverty. He gives rich presents and grants 
important privileges to his favorites, and disgraces 
those who offend him and banishes them from the 
kingdom. There are, probably, impressive religious 
services. The magi are invoked to decide important 
questions, either by lot or by means of magical rites. 



66 Beauty Crowned. 

There are, doubtless, many military reviews to feed 
the excitement of the multitude. The king plays at 
dice with noble guests for immense stakes. There 
are royal hunting expeditions in the forests or in some 
) of the king's paradises. 

There are trophies of victories and memorials of 
conquests. The king's word is law. A world lies at 
his feet, and he stands upon the necks of princes. 
Wealth is poured into his treasury, tributes and gifts 
from all the provinces. Like Solomon when visited 
by the Queen of Sheba, he shows all his treasures — 
the palaces, his throne, his gold and silver plate, his 
royal jewelry, his uncounted wealth, his trophies of 
war and conquest, his eunuchs, his slaves, his noble 
captives and hostages, and his royal inscriptions. No 
other monarch has ever ruled over so broad an em- 
pire, and no other has received so rich a tribute, or 
the homage of so many kings " from India even unto 
Ethiopia." 

Still flows wine from the royal cellars. None is 
compelled to drink more than he wishes. The 
Greeks at their feasts had a symposiarch, the Romans 
an arbiter bibendi, the Jews a master of the feast. 
The drinking was under the direction of the master, 
who received his orders from the throne. Not so 
here, but each guest drinks to suit his pleasure. This 
is provided in a special edict of the king — " No com- 
pelling." " The wine of the kingdom " flows abun- 



The Banquet of Wine. 67 

dantly. Nobles become drunken. Eyes are red, steps 
unsteady, hands tremble, the tongue is loosened, and 
pride is fed. 

The " hundred and four-score days " have already 
passed, and the king has made " a feast unto all the 
people that are present in Shushan the palace, both 
unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the 
garden of the king's palace." The king, inflamed 
with wine, boasts of the strength of his good right 
arm, his personal prowess, his bravery in battle, his 
military renown, the homage and loyalty of his sub- 
jects, the multitude of his slaves, and the beauty of 
his queen. And still he drinks the wine of Helbon. 
The guests vie with each other in feeding his vanity, 
and praise him in unmeasured terms of flattery. The 
climax is reached when the king declares that the 
nobles and princes and guests must themselves see 
Queen Vashti in order to fully appreciate his hap- 
piness in her possession. They applaud his sug- 
gestion. 

Meantime Vashti has been feasting the women in 
" the royal house." It is the seventh day, the last 
day of the feast. That the beautiful queen may be 
ushered into his presence in a manner befitting her 
dignity and position, he commands the seven cham- 
berlains, or eunuchs — Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, 
Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas — " to bring 
Vashti the queen before the king with the crown 



68 Beauty Crowned. 

royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty, 
for she was fair to look on." 

This is not the only case in. which an Oriental 
monarch has wished to have his own estimate of his 
queen's loveliness confirmed by the opinion of other 
judges of female beauty. Herodotus gives an account 
of the assassination of Candaules, king of Sardis : "Now 
it happened that this Candaules was in love with his 
own wife, and not only so, but thought her the fairest 
woman in the whole world. This fancy had strange 
consequences. There was in his body-guard a man 
whom he specially favored, Gyges, the son of Das- 
cylus. All affairs of great moment were intrusted 
by Candaules to this person, and to him he was wont 
to extol the surpassing beauty of his wife. So mat- 
ters went on for a while. At length, one day, Can- 
daules, for he was fated to end ill, thus addressed his 
follower : ' I see thou dost not credit what I tell thee 
of my lady's loveliness ; but come now, since men's 
ears are less credulous than their eyes, contrive some 
means whereby thou mayest behold her,' " contrary to 
our customs. Gyges was amazed at the proposition 
to do the fair lady wrong, and endeavored to persuade 
the king from such a disgraceful course. He quoted 
a proverb against the king's proposal, and professed 
his unlimited confidence in the king's word. The 
king thereupon became so urgent that Gyges feared 
to offend him, and yielded to his plan. 

Candaules concealed Gyges in his chamber, but 



The Banquet of Wike. 69 

" as he was passing out she saw him, and instantly 
divining what had happened, she neither screamed, 
... nor even appeared to have noticed aught, pur- 
posing to take vengeance upon the husband who had 
so affronted her." The next morning, choosing some 
of the most faithful from among her retinue and dis- 
closing to them the disgrace to which she had been 
subjected, and announcing her determination to secure 
summary vengeance, she summoned Gyges into her 
presence. He obeyed, supposing that she wished to 
confer with him, and not suspecting that she knew 
aught of what had occurred. She addressed him in 
these words : " Take thy choice, Gyges, of two courses 
which are open to thee. Slay Candaules and thereby 
become my lord and obtain the Lydian throne, or die 
this moment in his room." Gyges besought the 
queen to release him from so hard a choice, but she 
remained inexorable. Gyges must slay the king in 
his own bed. 

" All was then prepared for the attack, and when 
night fell Gyges, seeing that he had no retreat or 
escape, but must absolutely either slay Candaules, or 
himself be slain, followed his mistress into the sleep 
ing-room. She placed a dagger in his hand and hid 
him carefully behind the self-same door. Then Gyges, 
when the king had fallen asleep, entered privily into 
the chamber and struck him dead. Thus did the wife 
and kingdom of Candaules pass into the possession of 
his follower Gyges, of whom Archilochus, the Parian, 



70 Beauty Ckowned. 

who lived about the same time, made mention in a 
poem written in iambic trimeter verse." * 

The historian relates how the seven noble embassa- 
dors of Megabazus to the court of Amyntas the 
Macedonian lost their lives for the audacity and wan- 
tonness they displayed at the feast " when the meal 
was over and they were all set to the drinking." f 

Xerxes, " merry with wine," sent for Queen Vashti 
— " the best " — that he might dazzle his guests with 
her beauty. She must come in brilliant attire and 
with the "crown royal" upon her head, to submit 
herself to the impudent gaze of half-drunken no- 
bles. Her " crown " was probably a tall stiff cap 
set with large jewels like that of Mousa, the Par- 
thian queen, which appears on a coin of her son 
Phraataces. £ 

Upon ordinary occasions the queen may have been 
accustomed to take her meals with the king, § but 
not at public feasts. She was now presiding at the 
entertainment of the women in the palace. " The 
summons probably found her with a crowd of female 
guests before her. She might have been loath at 
another time to obey ; but while they looked on, it 
was a severer trial to be required to abdicate her dig- 
nity and, confessing her royal state his bounty, to 
cast, as it were, her crown before his footstool." 

* Herodotus, i, 8-12. f Ibid., v, 8. 

\ Rawliuson, The Sixth Oriental Monarchy, p. 220. 

§ Herodotus, ix, 110. || Tyrwhitt. 



The Banquet of Wine. 71 

None but a Xerxes would have thus broken in 
upon the order of the entertainment, and humbled 
the queen in the eyes of all the noble women of the 
empire. The command was very inopportune. A 
more serious objection was that to obey the king's 
command were to do that which, if not positively for- 
bidden by law, was certainly forbidden by custom. 
The social customs of a thousand years cannot be 
easily broken. If the king were to command, and that 
without reason and against all law, and she to obey 
blindly and mechanically, she were not a help-meet, 
not a woman, but a convenient ornament. to be exhib- 
ited at the king's pleasure. Such extravagance and 
folly were not known in history, and they outraged 
the established customs of the age ! The applause of 
the revelers would have been her degradation. After 
this, according to the feelings of the times, she could 
not have been looked upon as a virtuous matron. 
Xerxes in his sober moments would have been the 
first to condemn the folly. Eot only would Yashti 
have been dishonored as a woman, as a mother, and 
as a queen, and her reputation threatened, but also 
her royal husband would have shared the disgrace. 

Was not the king mad to issue such a command ? 
Yes ; wine had stolen away his brain. " It is not for 
kings, O Lemuel ! it is not for kings to drink wine ; 
nor for princes strong drink : lest they drink, and for- 
get the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the 
afflicted." Prov. xxxi, 4. Wine was in and wit was 



72 Beauty Crowned. 

out. Had there been no wine at the feast the king 
would have been saved a crying disgrace. 

" The drinking was according to the law ; none did 
compel : for so the king had appointed to all the offi- 
cers of his house, that they should do according to 
every man's pleasure." 

" He respected their national habits, and did not 
forget that some of the mountaineer Persian tribes, 
which retained the simplicity and strictness of their 
ancient customs, were famous for their temperance." * 
If the king yielded to the wishes of the temperate 
and issued the irreversible mandate, " No compelling," 
he also gave full license to the intemperate. "We 
are not told in the present passage that the king, on 
this occasion, exceptionally permitted moderation, 
especially to such of his guests as were, according to 
their ancestral customs, addicted to moderation, and 
who would else have been compelled to drink im- 
moderately. For the words with which this verse 
concludes, wmile they imply also a permission to each 
to drink as little as he chose, are specially intended 
to allow every one to take much." f 

While permitting moderation, the meaning was 
" that the guests in a courageous and vigorous carous- 
ing should show their appreciation of the liberal hos- 
pitality of the king, and at the same time evince their 
ability to do something in their drinking worthy of 
the royal table." J 

* Wordsworth. f Bertheau. % Lange. 



The Banquet of Wine. 73 

Since the guests doubtless vied with the great king, 
there must have been at this feast many who were 
mighty to drink wine. 

Anciently, as in modern times, wine wrought ruin 
wherever it went. The monuments of Egypt picture 
the drunkenness of the people. At Denderah was 
held a drinking feast, and the goddess of drunkenness 
was worshiped. Drunkenness threatened the ruin of 
the Chinese empire more than a thousand years before 
Christ. About B. C. 1116 the emperor of China felt 
impelled to publish an edict called " The Announce- 
ment about Drunkenness." The Indians in the time 
of the Yedas were cursed with this curse. The Assyr- 
ians drank wine. Babylon fell while her defender 
and his court were engaged in a drunken carousal. 
In the time of Christ the Corinthians were usually 
introduced on the stage in a state of intoxication. 
Rome was cursed with drunkenness and debauchery. 
Palestine was swallowed up of strong drink. 

Total abstinence then, as now, was the sovereign 
remedy. The Institutes of Manu enjoined it upon 
Brahman priests. It was imperative in Buddhism. 
It gave strength to the arm of the Lacedaemonians. 
It organized the Rechabites and ISTazarites of Pales- 
tine. Total abstinence was the practice of the Essenes 
of Judea and the Theraputse of Egypt. The Milesian 
and Cean maidens drank no wine. 

The seeds of intemperance are planted in the 
home. Wine and brandy are used in modern cookery. 



74: Beauty Crowned. 

They find a permanent and prominent place in the 
book of household receipts. Children are early ac- 
customed to their flavor. Liquors are always included 
in the list of family medicines. Patients use alcohol 
as a remedy long after its necessity, as determined 
by the judgment of competent medical authority, 
has ceased. Resort is had to alcohol as the panacea 
for all ills. Without physicians' prescriptions liquors 
are freely taken, and recommended to young and old 
alike. The bill of fare at public houses includes a 
long wine list. Wine, cider, and other intoxicating 
beverages are found in the cellar and pantry of pri- 
vate homes. Wine is placed on the board at fash- 
ionable suppers, and wine aud beer sparkle and foam 
on the family table. Thus from his earliest years the 
child is made familiar with the appearance and pres- 
ence of wine, becomes acquainted with its taste, takes 
it in his medicine when sick, and in his food when 
well, learns to think of it as not only harmless, but 
positively nutritious and healthful and medicinal ; 
considers its use as a sure test of manliness ; is urged 
to drink by all the power of social and parental ex- 
ample, and is invited to its pleasures by all the fasci- 
nation of fair promise appealing to the lust of the 
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, with 
a persuasive eloquence most difficult to resist. No 
wonder that with such a system of education and dis- 
cipline the thousands fall. Reformation in the home 
is of prime importance. Wives and mothers share 



The Banquet of Wine. 75 

with husbands and fathers the responsibility of the 
drunkenness that curses the earth. 

Not all the wines of antiquity were intoxicating. 
Some were certainly sweet, and produced no intoxi- 
cating effect. The chief butler's dream in Genesis 
accurately represents one of the ways in which wine 
w T as made in Egypt. A picture exhumed at Pompeii 
represents Bacchus squeezing clusters of grapes and 
catching the juice in a wine -cup. Dr. Ebers found 
a picture on the walls of the temple of Edfu repre- 
senting a king standing with a cup in his hand, and 
this inscription underneath : "They press grapes into 
the water and the king drinks." The Greeks and 
Romans were acquainted with the unfermented juice 
of the grape. The ancients could prevent or arrest 
fermentation. 

The wines of the Bible are not all intoxicating. But 
we need not depend on a lexicographical and etymo- 
logical argument. The Bible is the best text-book on 
temperance which has ever been published. It fur- 
nishes the awful examples of Noah, Lot, the carousers 
at Belshazzar's feast, and at the more brilliant ban- 
quet of Xerxes, in " Shushan the palace." Nabal the 
churlish died ten days after a drunken feast. Absalom 
invited Ammon, the king's son, to a sheep-shearing 
feast, got him drunk, and then slew him. Joel 
charges the ungodly with having sold "a girl for 
wjne, that they might drink." The wine of the hea- 
then is "the poison of dragons." A woe is pro- 



76 Beauty Crowned. 

nounced upon the drunkards of Ephraim. Those 
who are mighty to drink wine and mingle strong 
drink, and whoever gives his neighbor drink and 
makes him drunken, can look for but labor and sorrow 
and woe. Those who rise early in the morning to 
drink, and continue late at night in drunken revelry, 
are under the curse of God. The exhortation is given, 
; 'Be not among wine-bibbers," and the Christian is 
commanded not to eat with one who is called a broth- 
er, if he be a drunkard. Life-like pictures are given 
of drunkenness and its fruits. We see the unsteady 
step, the reeling form, the drunken fall, the feast of 
wine, the subsequent sickness, and the vomit and filth. 
We hear the rude joke, the boisterous laugh, and the 
idiotic shout. We note the disputes, contentions, sense- 
less babblings, roused passions, street fights, aimless 
wanderings, uncertain vision, wounds, povertj^, rags, 
sorrow, and woe. We learn that wine is a mocker, and 
that strong drink is raging, and that it is the height 
of folly to be deceived. We hear it declared that no 
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. The 
whole spirit of the Bible is opposed to intemperance. 
O rum, how dost thou curse the world ! Thou 
dost devour the wealth of the people. Thou dost 
undermine the foundations of society, invade and 
control halls of legislation and justice, and set at de- 
fiance all laws, human and divine. Thou dost enter 
the home of peace, purity, and happiness and smite 
it with thy black wings ; forthwith peace is gone, 



The Banquet of Wine. 77 

purity, weeping and heart-broken, disappears, and 
happiness is seen no more. Thou dost enter the 
heart of the husband and he becomes a monster ; thou 
dost enter the heart of the wife and she becomes a 
demoness. Thou dost steal bread from the mouths 
of famishing children, snatch clothing from their 
backs, put out the fire on their hearths, tear down 
the dwelling from over their heads, paint misery 
upon their fair features, and turn them out in the 
fury of the wintry storm to beg in the streets. Thou 
dost turn joy into sorrow, light into darkness, laugh- 
ter into mourning, and gladsome songs into the wail 
of woe, the cry of anguish, the shriek of horror, 
the sob of grief, the groan of suppressed agony, 
and loud lamentation — the unavailing remedy of a 
breaking heart. Thou dost make one an idiot, an- 
other a pauper, the third a madman, the fourth a 
murderer, and the fifth a suicide. For one thou dost 
prepare the assassin's dagger, for another the burglar's 
tools, for the third the poisoner's cup, and for the 
fourth the robber's fatal shot. Like some treacher- 
ous Joab, thou dost feign an interest in the health of 
Amasa, proffer the kiss of friendship, and then smite 
him with thy sword in the fifth rib. Like some de- 
ceitful Delilah, thou dost lull Samson to sleep in thy 
lap, and then deliver him, shorn of his strength, into 
the hand of the uncircumcised Philistines. Like 
some fiery Jael, thou dost allure Sisera by thy bland- 



78 Beauty Crowned. 

ishments ; he enters thy tent ; thou dost give him milk 
to drink; thou dost prepare for him a couch and 
cover him with a mantle, and then when securely 
locked in slumber thou with heavy hammer dost send. 
a nail crashing through his temples. Like some fair 
siren, thou dost charm by thy songs and win by thy 
smiles, and when thy victim is tempted to thy em- 
brace, thou dost leap with him into the black gulf of 
perdition. Thou art the foe of modesty, chastity, 
and virtue. Thou clost rob the eye of its brilliancy, 
the cheek of its healthful hue, the voice of its clarion 
clearness, the lips of their color, the breath of its 
sweetness, the tongue of its articulation, the features 
of their expression, the brain of its intelligence, the 
right hand of its cunning, the heart of its affections, 
the blood of its purity, the nerves of their tone, the 
muscles of their obedience, the step of its elasticity, 
the sensibilities of their delicacy, the reason of its pow- 
er, the judgment of its accuracy, the conscience of its 
command, the will of its strength, and the man of his 
humanity. Thou dost fill the asylums, poor-houses, 
prisons, penitentiaries, and jails. Thou dost plant 
diseases in the human frame, eat away the lives of 
men, and dig their graves. Inspired by thee, the 
husband slays the wife of his bosom, and the father 
his darling only son. Thou hast slain more than 
famine, war, and pestilence. Thou hast devoured 
millions of souls, and yet thy cursed maw is insatia- 



The Banquet of "Wine. 79 

ble. Thou dost degrade man, created in the image of 
God, to the level of a brute. Thou dost bar the road 
to heaven and doom thy victims to everlasting de- 
spair. Thy awful, thy blood-dripping trophies, dis- 
played on every hand, strike all the soul with horror. 
Thou demon of the pit, with ail my being I curse 
thee! 



80 Beauty Crowned. 



IV. 

FOLLY, ANGER, DIVORCE. 

" The queen Yashti refused to come at the king's commandment." 
— Esther i, 12. 

"If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, 
and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, 
that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king 
Ahasuerus ; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that 
is better than she. — Esther i, 19. 

" The court of the Sassanian kings, especially in 
the later period of the empire, was arranged upon a 
scale of almost unexampled grandeur and magnifi- 
cence. The robes worn by the great king were beau- 
tifully embroidered, and covered with gems and 
pearls, which in some, representations may be 
counted by hundreds. The royal crown, which could 
not be worn, but was hung from the ceiling by a 
gold chain exactly over the head of the king when 
he took his seat in his throne-room, is said to have 
been adorned with a thousand pearls, each as large as 
an egg. The throne itself was of gold, and was sup- 
ported on four feet, each formed of a single enormous 
ruby. The great throne-room was ornamented with 
enormous columns of silver, between which were 



Folly, Anger, Divorce. 81 

hangings of rich silk or brocade. The vaulted roof 
presented to the eve representations of the heavenly 
bodies^ the sun, the moon, and the stars; while 
globes, probably of crystal, or of burnished metal, 
hung suspended from it at various heights, lighting 
up the dark space as with a thousand lusters." * 

Accounts of the more modern Persian courts assist 
us in our estimation of their ancient splendor. Every 
thing connected with the reign of Xerxes was grand 
and imposing. The Persians of his army "were 
adorned with the greatest magnificence." "They 
glittered all over with gold, vast quantities of which 
they wore about their persons. They were followed 
by litters, wherein rode their concubines, and by a 
numerous train of attendants handsomely dressed. 
Camels and sumpter-beasts carried their provision, 
apart from that of the other soldiers." f 

At the close of the battle of Platgea, by order of 
Pausanius, " the Helots went, and spread themselves 
through the camp, wherein were found many tents 
richly adorned with furniture of gold and silver, 
many couches covered with plates of the same, and 
many golden bowls, goblets, and other drinking ves- 
sels. On the carriages were bags containing silver 
and golden kettles ; and the bodies of the slain fur- 
nished bracelets and chains, and scimiters with golden 

* Rawlinson, The Seventh Oriental Monarchy, vol. ii, pp. 301, 302. 
f Herodotus, vii, 83. 

6 



82 Beauty Crowned. 

ornaments — not to mention embroidered apparel, of 
which no one made any account." * 

Xerxes was inspired only by the most selfish and 
unscrupulous ambition. He sought his own glory, 
! and was not careful of the means employed. He 
sought fame, and fed on flattery and display. He 
exercised unlimited power, and his riches commanded 
the worship of his subjects. He lived in extravagant 
self-complacency. His vanity — swelling, costly, and 
intolerably burdensome — knew no bounds. 

Excited with wine, he commanded that Queen 
Vashti be brought into the presence of his half- 
drunken guests that they might behold her beauty 
and praise her loveliness, " for she was fair to look 
upon." It was an outrage on all -the customs of the 
empire. 

The king awaits the return of the seven chamber- 
lains. They are called in the Septuagint " deacons." 
Mehuman, the leader — if the m be omitted — may have 
been Hainan. They do not return. The guests are 
in anxious expectancy and are already thinking of 
proper terms in which to compliment the queenly 
beauty and flatter her royal husband. And now the 
chamberlains return, but without Yashti. The king 
and his guests are amazed. Uncertain of the issue, 
the chamberlains explain, " the queen Yashti refused 
to come at the king's commandment." Yashti was 

* Herodotus, ix, 80. 



Folly, Anger, Divorce. S3 

doubtless proud of spirit, and instead of returning " a 
soft answer," and thus perhaps maintaining both her 
dignity and queenly relation, she met the command 
of the king with a flat refusal. " Therefore was the 
king very wroth, and his anger burned in him." 
Her refusal is to be highly commended, though it 
might have been given with more diplomacy. Even 
at Belshazzar's feast the queen was not present until 
summoned by the hand on the wall. Dan. v, 3, 4. 

" Take care that thou be not made a fool by flat- 
terers," says Sir Walter Ealeigh, " for even the wisest 
men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that flat- 
terers are the worst kind of traitors ; for they will 
strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all 
evils, correct thee in nothing, but so shadow and paint 
all thy vices and follies as thou shalt never, by their 
will, discern evil from good, or vice from virtue ; and 
because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to enter- 
tain the addition of other men's praises is most peril- 
ous. Do not, therefore, praise tlryself, except thou 
wilt be counted a vainglorious fool ; neither take de- 
light in the praise of other men, except thou deserve 
it, and receive it from such as are worthy and honest 
and will withal warn thee of thy faults ; for flatterers 
have never any virtue ; they are ever base, creeping, 
cowardly persons. A flatterer is said to be a beast 
that biteth smiling ; it is said by Isaiah in this man- 
ner : ' My people, they that praise thee, seduce thee, 



84 Beauty Crowned. 

and disorder the paths of thy feet ; ' and David 
desired God to cut out the tongue of a flatterer.'" 

Xerxes flattered himself so that the Xerxes created 
by his vanity was quite another person from the real 
Xerxes. His desire for praise grew and became in- 
satiable. His courtiers, knowing the only way to 
royal favor, flattered him in extravagant and most 
unmeasured terms. They were not sincere, honest, 
and truthful, for in their hearts they doubtless held 
him in contempt. But he would listen to nothing save 
that which fed his vanity. As a slave he was led step 
by step to the utmost limit of unreasonable and vain 
self -gratification. He became a fool, and prostituted 
his crown and his queen to mere low spectacular show. 
By the queen's refusal, his pride, gratified, encouraged, 
fed, praised, and pampered, was touched at a most 
vital point. 

The great king was surrounded by wealth, splendor, 
and glory. There were gathered to him all that was 
beautiful to the eye, all that was grateful to the taste, 
and all that could rejoice the heart. He ruled many 
powerful, rich, and renowned nations. He dwelt in a 
great city, his palaces were of surpassing beauty, and 
he commanded every luxury. Obsequious servants 
were attentive to do his bidding, the feast was in 
progress, and all lips were full of his praise. Fair 
ladies and Persian beauties, gem-adorned and dia- 
mond-crowned, were entertained right royally by his 



Folly, Anger, Divorce. 85 

matchless queen. But happiness is not found in 
golden halls. True pleasure flows from a pure heart. 
The praise of his guests, though without stint, does 
not satisfy the king. He determines to call forth still 
higher terms of praise, and all his joy is turned to 
anger and chagrin. 

The great king is an absolute monarch. He con- 
trols the vast wealth of one hundred and twenty-seven 
provinces, possesses the power of life and death over 
the inhabitants, can call to arms millions of men, and 
acknowledges no rival. His personal will is the 
supreme and unquestioned law, vast rivers are insuffi- 
cient to quench the thirst of his armies, no enemy can 
escape his power, and he is like a god upon the earth. 
No more absolute, independent, and commanding a 
worldly position were possible. This king of absolute 
power is defeated and humiliated in his own capital, 
in his own palace, in his own family, and by his own 
wife. The love and loyalty of one woman alone will 
bring more true happiness, more sunny contentment, 
and more wealth of soul than the scepter of a Xerxes. 

" The queen Yashti refused to come at the king's 
commandment." The king did not dream of such a 
rebuff, and he has no power to conquer her insubor- 
dinate spirit. What shall he do ? The eyes of the 
Persian empire are upon him. He has slain lesser 
offenders. The seven chamberlains and all the con- 
vivial company must have expected an explosion of 



86 Beauty Crowned. 

Lis wrath and an edict for her immediate execution. 
Artabanus, at this same feast, advised against the 
Grecian expedition, and Xerxes, full of wrath, re- 
plied : "Artabanus, thou art my father's brother — that 
shall save thee from receiving the doe meed of thy 
silly words. One shame, however, I will lay upon 
thee, coward and faint-hearted as thou art — thou shalt 
not come with me to fight these Greeks, but shalt 
tarry here with the women." When a great storm 
broke the bridge of the Hellespont lie " commanded 
that the overseers of the work should lose their 
heads." To avenge himself upon Pythius, who had 
dared to ask for one of his five sons to be dismissed 
from the army to be the stay of his declining years, 
Xerxes seized the eldest son, cut his body in twain, 
and caused the army to march out between the two 
halves. He most barbarously ill-treated the body 
of his dead enemy, the brave Leonidas." When 
Darius was about to set out on an expedition against 
Scythia, a Persian named (Eobazus, whose three 
sons were in the army, prayed the king to permit 
one to remain at home. The king replied " that he 
would allow them all to remain," and bade his at- 
tendants put the three sons to death, f It is a danger- 
ous thino; to arouse the wrath of a Persian kino;. His 
anger may be unjust, selfish, and cruel, no one can rea- 
son with him or stay his fury. A brave and spirited 

* Herodotus, vii, 11, 35, 38, 238. \ rb ' u U »V. 84. 



Folly, Anger, Divokce. 87 

woman was Yashti, to dare the wrath of Xerxes, even 
to preserve her womanly modesty and dignity. 

A greater man than Xerxes might, under the cir- 
cumstances, have forgiven the queen. Xerxes could 
not forgive. He might have postponed the consider- 
ation of the question till some future time, but his 
blood was up, and. he determined upon speedy action. 
Yet he seemed to have been partially sobered by this 
unexpected turn in the pleasures of the banquet, and 
would act only under the semblance at least of law. 
Pie sought counsel, for in the multitude of counselors 
there is wisdom. A good counselor should be a man 
of wisdom, experience, and reputation, that confidence 
may be placed in his judgment. He must advise 
without fear or flattery. He must be unselfish, just, 
and reasonable, as seeking the best good of his friend. 
Such a counselor may be of inestimable value to a 
ruler who is wise to listen to advice. 

Now below the king, in his court, were six privi- 
leged families, higher 'in rank than the other nobles. 
These with the royal family — the Achsemenidse — 
would make seven great families. They were fellow- 
conspirators when Darius Hystaspis was raised to the 
throne.* Only from these seven families could the 
king select his wives. The Behistun Inscription con- 
firms Herodotus with respect to those families. They 
were "the seven princes of Persia and Media, which 

* Herodotus, iii, 84. 



88 Beauty Crowned. 

saw the king's face," and " the king and his seven 
counselors." Esther i, 14; Ezra vii, 14. At their 
pleasure they were privileged to advise and to recom- 
mend important measures, for the execution of which 
they became in some degree responsible. When the 
king was not in the female apartments they could 
enter his presence without being introduced by an 
usher.* In all ceremonies they had precedence by 
virtue of rank. Officers of the court were distin- 
guished by a wand about three feet long, or by an 
ornament resembling a lotus blossom, which was also 
seen sometimes in the hand of the king. They also 
wore golden collars and golden earrings, and some- 
times carried a dagger in their girdle. 

These seven distinguished counselors — Carshena, 
Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and 
Memucan — who " sat the first in the kingdom," de- 
scended from the families of the seven conspirators 
who placed Darius upon the throne, or, at least, stood 
in a similar relation to the king. They bore names of 
" a general Persian cast." Marsena may be the famous 
general, Mardonius, and Admatha may be Artabanus, 
the uncle of Xerxes. These men were called upon to 
advise the king in his unexpected difficulty. 

But they were to be associated in their deliberation 
with others — "the wise men who knew the times." 
The latter were the astrologers and magi. A sty ages, 

* Herodotus, iii, 118. 



Folly, Anger, Divorce. 89 

the son of Cjaxares, consulted the magi concerning a 
dream which had thrown him into great terror. Ac- 
cording to these wise men the dream prophesied the 
birth and empire of Cyrus. Another dream was 
read in a similar manner. When Cyrus had escaped 
the plot formed for his destruction, and rejoiced in 
his young life, Astyages again consulted the magi 
concerning the probable fulfillment of the dream.*' 

Xerxes had had a dream while celebrating this same 
feast. " He dreamed that he was crowned with a 
branch of an olive tree, and that boughs spread out 
from the olive branch and covered the whole earth ; 
then suddenly the garland, as it lay upon his brow, 
vanished." He consulted the magi and was told 
"that its meaning reached to the whole earth, and 
that all mankind would become his servants." f 
When his army began its march from Sardis toward 
Abydos "the sun suddenly quitted his seat in the 
heavens and disappeared, though there were no clouds 
in sight, but the sky was clear and serene." The 
magi were called upon to interpret the portent. 

During the storm off Artemisium the magi offered 
victims to the winds, and charmed them by the help 
of conjurors. ^ Oriental sovereigns frequently sought 
the interpretation of dreams and prodigies from their 
priests. Gen. xli, 8 ; Dan. ii, 2 ; iv, 6. The wise 
men of Babylon gave counsel according to celestial 

* Herodotus, i, 10?, 120. f Ibid., vii, 19. %Ibid., vii, 191. 



90 Beauty Crowned. 

phenomena. Dan. ii, 27; v, 15 ; Isa. xliv, 25 ; xlvii, 
13 ; Jer. 1, 35. " 

Xerxes was fond of asking advice, but would brook 
nothing which did not coincide with his own inclina- 
tion.* Though his own will was the supreme law of 
the empire, yet now he turns to the wise men and 
counselors, " for so was the king's manner toward all 
that knew law and judgment," and asks, "What 
shall we do unto the queen Yashti, according to law, 
because she hath not performed the commandment 
of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains 1 " The 
wise men and counselors retire for consultation. It 
is a time of anxiety to both king and guests. The 
queen is in suspense, yet determined and resolute. 
The noble ladies whom she entertains are in tears. 
The wine has ceased to flow. A bright morning is 
often followed by a dark evening. 

The king's advisers have a delicate task to perform. 
They are placed in a dilemma. Whichever way they 
turn they are in a perilous position. If they justify, 
or excuse, or lessen the gravity of the offense of the 
queen, it will be at the risk of their lives. If they 
condemn the queen, as they feel compelled to do, 
what punishment shall they recommend 1 The king 
passionately loves the beautiful Yashti. They dare 
not recommend the penalty of death, yet if she live 
and ever again be brought into a position of authority, 
* Herodotus, vii, 8, 11, 48, 234; viii, 101. 



Folly, Anger, Divorce. 91 

her judges will in all probability lose their heads. 
Her character — if she be the same as the Amestris of 
Herodotus — is equal to any severity of vengeance. 

It were not a light thing to fall into the hands of a 
Persian queen. When Parysatis, the mother of Cyrus 
the younger and Artaxerxes II., had secured posses- 
sion of the Carian who claimed to have slain Cyrus, 
" She delivered him to the executioner, with orders 
to torture him for ten days, and then to tear out his 
eyes, and pour molten brass into his ears, till he ex- 
pired." Mithridates, when under the influence of 
wine, confessed to have slain Cyrus, and she con- 
demned him to the punishment of the boat, which is 
too horrible to relate. At a game of dice with the 
king she won a eunuch, and chose Mesabates, who, 
according to Persian custom, had cut off the head and 
right hand of Cyrus, and caused this Mesabates to be 
flayed, his body to be fixed on three stakes, and his 
skin to be stretched out by itself. 

No counselors were ever called upon to give advice 
under more perplexing circumstances. The only 
solution of the difficult problem presented to them 
is to spare the life of the queen and yet to place her 
beyond all means of ever doing her judges personal 
harm. The laws of the Persians and Medes change 
not. Many allusions in Greek authors confirm this 
point. They can place her under the ban of this un- 
changeable law. Having reached this decision they 



92 Beauty Crowned. 

appoint Memncan their spokesman and return to the 
presence of the king. He frames his answer with the 
skill of a crafty diplomat : 

"Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the 
king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the 
people that are in all the provinces of the king 
Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come 
abroad unto all woman, so that they shall despise their 
husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, 
The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to 
be brought in before him, but she came not. Like- 
wise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day 
unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the 
deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much 
contempt and wrath." 

In this artful exaggeration of the queen's fault 
powerful testimony is borne to the unmeasured reach 
of influence. This is a most important truth. No 
deed which is done ever dies and is forgotten. The 
words which we speak live on and on after our bodies 
have turned to ashes. The dusty grave cannot cover 
a life. Influence is subtle and deep, and travels far 
and wide. This influence, silent, magnetic, growing, 
pervadirg, is a wonderful thing. No one can live 
without exerting an influence which shall work for 
others either weal or woe, and this influence shall belt 
the earth. Thoughts, words, acts are immortal. They 
are all written somewhere, and we shall meet them 






Folly, Anger, Divorce. 93 

again. Mighty are the marvels they shall do as they 
roll onward through the eternities, v widening and 
deepening in their range and power, blighting or 
blessing in their course. 

The higher the position, the wider the influence. 
All eyes look to the queen. There should be purity 
at the head of a government. The wives and hus- 
bands of the Persian empire are to be involved in this 
act of disobedience. 

Weighing the offense, the tribunal advises : " If it 
please the king, let there go a royal commandment 
from him, and let it be written among the laws of the 
Persians and the Medes, tlfdt it be not altered, That 
Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus ; and let 
the king give her royal estate unto another that is bet- 
ter than she. And when the king's decree, which he 
shall make, shall be published throughout all his em- 
pire (for it is great), all the wives shall give to their 
husbands honor, both to great and small." 

Thus the queen's act is made the blackest crime, 
and the semblance of guarding morality and justice is 
made to hide hypocrisy, injustice, and violence. 

" Here and in the account of the "honors paid to 
Mordecai tlie English word 'honor' is not at all 
adequate to the translating of the Hebrew." The 
original word " retains its meaning of costliness or 
preciousness, designating that which is valuable be- 
cause it is scarce— that which is difficult to get and 



94 Beauty Crowned. 

easy to lose. The idea here is that the women will 
come to regard their husbands as peculiarly valuable 
and precarious possessions, against the alienation of 
which they need to guard with peculiar care." * 

"And the saying pleased the king and the princes; 
and the king did according to the word of Memu- 
can : for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, 
into every province according to the writing thereof, 
and to every people after their language, that every 
man should bear rule in his own house, and that it 
should be published according to the, language of 
every people." 

Much more was doubtl#ss contained in these " let- 
ters," translated into the various languages f the 
different satrapies— a custom preserved to us in the 
bilingual and trilingual inscriptions discovered in 
eastern lands — but sacred story contains but two im- 
portant mandates : that the man bear rule in his own 
house, and that only the language of the husband be 
used in the family. 

" This decree," says Rawlinson, " has been called 
c absurd ' and ' quite unnecessary in Persia.' f If the 
criticism were allowed, it would be sufficient to ob- 
serve that many absurd things were done by Xerxes.;): 
But it may be questioned whether the decree was un- 
necessary. The undue influence of women in domes- 
tic and even in public affairs is a feature of the 

* Willis J. Beeclier. f Davidson. % Herod., viii, 35 ; ix, 108-111. 



Folly, Anger, Divorce. 95 

ancient Persian monarchy. Herodotus tells us that 
Atossa ' completely ruled ' Darius.* Xerxes himself 
was, in his later years, shamefully subject to Amestris.f 
The example of the court would naturally affect the 
people. The decree, therefore, would seem to have 
been not so much an idle and superfluous act as an 
ineffectual protest against a real and growing evil." 

Nehemiah met with a difficulty which the second 
order was aimed to remove. " In those days also saw 
I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Am- 
nion, and of Moab : and their children spake half 
in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the 
Jews' language, but according to the language of 
each people." Neh. xiii, 23, 24. The children nat- 
urally learning the tongue of the mother, she could 
wield over them an influence of which the father 
would be totally ignorant. In Persia man made 
woman a slave instead of a companion and a help- 
meet, and was enslaved with a worse slavery in turn. 

Yashti is divorced, the wise men and counselors 
and princes are satisfied, the wrath of the king is ap- 
peased, messengers are on their way to carry the 
edicts of Xerxes to the utmost provinces of the king- 
dom, the great feast is ended, noble guests return to 
their homes, affairs of state proceed as usual, and 
the excitement caused by the disobedient queen has 
passed away. 

* Herodotus, vii, 3. f Ibid., ix, 111. 



06 Beauty Crowned. 



LOYE AND HOME. 
" Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king." — Esther ii, 2. 

" A Church within a Church, a republic within a 
republic, a world within a world, is spelled by four 
letters — H-o-m-e ! If things go right there, they go 
right every- where ; if things go wrong there, they go 
wrong every-where. The door-sill of the dwelling- 
house is the foundation of Church and State. A 
man never gets higher than his own garret or lower 
than his own cellar. In other words, domestic life 
overarches and undergirds all other life. The highest 
house of congress is the domestic circle ; the rocking- 
chair in the nursery is higher than a throne." * 

" Domestic society is the seminary of social affec- 
tions, the cradle of sensibility, where the first ele- 
ments are acquired of that tenderness and humanity 
which cement society together; and were they en- 
tirely extinguished the whole fabric of social insti- 
tutions would be dissolved. Families are so many 
centers of attraction, which preserve mankind from 
being scattered and dissipated by the repulsive 
powers of selfishness." f 

* Talmage. f Robert Hali. 



Love and Home. 97 

The true wife and mother is the center around 
which the family affections twine. Love is the at- 
tractive power which binds all together in these most 
holy of all human relations. All forms of socialism, 
liberalism, and other errors of like character threaten 
the destruction of the whole social fabric. The 
position of woman, the sacredness of the marriage 
relation, and the purity of the home life, measure in 
all lands, not only the breadth and depth of healthful 
intellectual culture and the condition of civilization 
and religious development, but also the stability of 
government and the sovereignty of law. 

There are two important departures from the 
model of a true family and home. 

The plurality of husbands is a most ancient institu- 
tion. An excerpt taken from an old Chinese record, 
belonging to the archaic period of Chinese history, 
shows that this custom was then prevalent in the 
celestial empire : 

4i The husbands of the woman took counsel, and 

said: 'Which of us shall fight the tiger?' Wong;- 

Lee said, ' I am the largest and strongest ; I can best 

fight him. I will go.' Wong-He-Lim said, 'I am 

the weakest : therefore I should go. For if Wong- 

Lee is killed by the tiger, our loss is very great. But 

if I am killed no harm is done.' So Wong-Lee and 

Wong-He-Lim went out together and encountered 

the tiger, and after a terrible fight killed him. And 
7 



98 Beauty Crowned. 

when they came back, the woman and the other hus- 
bands were glad, and sacrificed chickens and pigs." 

This system of polyandry — which may have grown 
out of some more primitive condition — has prevailed 
widely in the early history of the race. In the 
present age the plurality of wives is more common. 
Polygamy is still a cancer upon the social organism. 

Roman law gave the wife equal rank with her hus- 
band, but placed the children under his control. The 
relation of concubinage was also recognized in law, 
and it was not till the Council of Trent that the 
Church dealt with the subject in the spirit of 
thorough reform. 

The Old Testament recognizes a conjugal relation 
inferior to the marriage relation. "While it may be 
said that the position of the wife was less honorable 
in early Oriental life than in modern western life, it 
is also true that the position of the concubine was 
less degraded. 

In early times the Persian kings seem to have had 
but three or four wives, and but one of those was 
designated by the title of u queen " and was the wife 
in the highest meaning of the term. The qtfeen 
wore a royal crown and was the acknowledged head 
of the female department of the palace. The other 
women of the palace recognized her queenly dignity 
by prostrating themselves in her presence. Her ap- 
parel was most gorgeous, her ornaments many and 



Love and Home. 99 

costly, lier revenues enormous, and her power over 
the king very great. The other wives were raised 
little above the concubines. The king could legally 
marry in but seven of the noble families of Persia, 
though the royal will was above all law. Each 
subordinate wife, doubtless, had her own attendants 
and her own suite of apartments. The royal harem 
grew in importance in the later history of the 
Persians. 

The virgins occupied the first house of the women 
during the twelve months of purification, or until 
called into the presence of the king. After this 
they went to the second house of the women. All 
were placed under the charge of faithful eunuchs, who 
kept them guarded in strictest seclusion. The king's 
harem was filled with the most beautiful women of 
the kingdom, who, sometimes several hundred in 
number, accompanied their lord both in his wars and 
in his hunting expeditions. Quintus Curtius tells us 
that Darius was accompanied in his warlike expedi- 
tions by three hundred and sixty-five concubines, all 
with the equipage of queens. 

In Shushan the palace the second house of the 
women was separated from the king's house by a 
court. There were separate suites of apartments for 
the virgins, the concubines, and the queen and other 
wives. While chamberlains had charge of the first and 
second, the queen herself was paramount in the third. 



100 Beauty Crowned. 

The queen-mother was superior in authority even 
to the queen. She kept her own ensigns of power, 
and was often proud and domineering. "Whenever 
the king and queen dined together, the queen-mother 
sat at the royal table and occupied a position above 
the monarch, while the queen herself was seated 
below in a more humble position. She had her own 
commodious suite of apartments and ample revenues 
at her disposal. She procured the royal pardon for 
criminals, or sheltered them in her own apartments, 
while she secretly poisoned or openly executed those 
of whom she was jealous, or against whom she was 
angry. The king himself often fell completely un- 
der her control, when she would prove herself most 
dangerous to the peace of the court and of the 
empire. 

Persian inscriptions and sculptures are silent in re- 
gard to women. The female form could not be law- 
fully represented, and women must not be named nor 
yet seen in public. It was a capital crime to address 
a royal concubine, or even to pass the litter in which 
one was borne. Married women were, not permitted 
to see even their nearest male relatives. In Persia 
to-day a man is insulted if asked about the health of 
his wife. Vashti's refusal to obey the command of 
the king exhibited not only her womanly delicacy, and 
wifely modesty, and queenly dignity, but also her 
loyalty to custom. 



Love and Home. • 101 

The word eunuch means etymological! j " bed- 
keeper" — one who lias charge of sleeping apartments. 
The unnatural and barbarous custom of employing 
eunuchs could have had its home nowhere save in the 
despotic East. Beautiful captives, both those of ten- 
der years and those who had attained maturity, were 
purchased or capturecl or seized for this office and 
degradation. 

This class of servants is often represented on the 
Assyrian monuments — warriors, scribes, priests, full- 
faced, beardless, double-chinned. These unhappy 
wretches, having no social interests, no family hopes, 
and no prospects better than slavery, were the props 
of absolute government, the tools of despotism, the 
guardians of the monarch's person, the keepers of the 
harem, and the sole witnesses of all the private and 
unguarded acts of their royal master. They frequently 
rose to positions of great influence, were appointed 
ambassadors to foreign courts, and became the custo- 
dians of most important trusts. Treated frequently 
with aversion and ridicule, they became stern and 
unfeeling in the exercise of authority, and introduced 
tyranny and licentiousness. Courage, gentleness, and 
shame too often gave way to melancholy, malice, and 
cruelty. Not a few, unable to endure their cruel fate, 
sought release in self-destruction. 

This unfortunate class, the natural outgrowth of 
polygamy, was large and powerful in the Persian em- 



102 Beauty Crowned. 

pire. The king chose them as chief advisers, officers 
of his court, generals of his armies, and educators of 
Ills children. Through their influence were born 
many dark plots, traitorous conspiracies, and bloody 
assassinations, which disgrace the pages of history. 
Barbarous villainies were connected with the nefarious 
traffic in eunuchs. The story of Panionius of Chios, 
and the awful revenge of Hermotimus, are too hor- 
rible to repeat.* 

Such was the family of a Persian king — the king 
himself, the queen mother, the queen, the other wives, 
the concubines, the virgins and the chamberlains — 
while a multitude of servants, guests, visitors, am- 
bassadors, hostages, travelers, princes, and high officers 
thronged the royal palace. This was not a family, 
and the great palace was not a home. Love could not 
bear sway, nor happiness abide, in " Shnshan the 
palace." 

A family is one man and one woman united in 
perpetual wedlock, each giving to the other perma- 
nent, unchanging, undivided, exclusive, and full affec- 
tion and devotion, and the children of this relation- 
ship ; who are the objects of tenderest parental love 
and care, which they repay with all the warmth of 
filial affection while they extend to each other full 
and hearty fraternal love. Conjugal affection is the 
basis of the family, and there is no family where this 

* Herodotus, viii, 105, 106. 



Love and Home. 103 

is absent. Persons united by worldly self-interest do 
not constitute a family. Neither property, nor posi- 
tion in society, nor fancy, nor fascination, can take 
the place of genuine love. Just so far as a man and 
woman are influenced to marry from any other motive 
than pure affection, just to that extent the union is 
contrary to the law of nature, the law of reason, the 
law of conscience, and the law of God. There should 
be honesty, and not deception, in the social inter- 
course preceding marriage. 

The ideal family and the ideal home are pictured 
only in the Bible and realized only in Christian lands. 
Such a home is an object-lesson of religious doctrine 
and practice. Here the truths of Christianity find 
expression in Christian lives. There is a church in 
every genuine Christian home. The husband and 
father is the family priest. The home is the founda- 
tion of society and of civil government. Christian 
children are educated for loyal and enlightened citi- 
zenship. 

The home furnishes us with the very choicest illus- 
trations and symbols of heaven. Heaven is the home 
of the Christian. We pray to " Our Father which 
art in heaven." We are his children and his heirs. 
In our Father's house are many mansions. 

The existence of such a family as was that of 
Xerxes is sufficient of itself to explain all his 
calamities. 



104 Beauty Crowned. 

The great banquet is ended. The guests from dis- 
tant provinces have returned to their homes. The 
beautiful Vashti has retired in disgrace under the 
royal displeasure. The king is left alone with his 
court. The excitement of the banquet of wine has 
worn away. Xerxes reflects upon the feasting and 
drinking and revelry of one hundred and four score 
and seven days, and it brings him no pleasure. • His 
palace has been robbed of its fairest jewel and chief est 
charm. He recognizes his divorcement of Vashti as 
inconsiderate, rash, and unwarranted. He has done 
the fair queen an irreparable injury, and has brought 
grievous suffering to his own soul. His anger is ap- 
peased and his old love for his queen has returned. 
He bitterly laments the wrong to which his despotic 
ambition and selfish vanity have led him, but he can- 
not retrace his steps. There is no remedy, for " the 
laws of the Persians and the Medes" change not, how- 
ever disastrous may be the consequences. He has 
done evil and he cannot undo it, and it must stand. 
lie would gladly efface from his memory the record 
of the past revelry, but it is impossible. What he 
has said and what he has enacted as law are irreversi- 
ble and indelible. 

u He ' remembered Vashti, and what she had done, 
and what was decreed against her." She was inno- 
cent ; he was guilty. His repentance was as speedy 
as his act was rash. Now his heart goes out after 



Love and Home. 105 

her whom lie had so deeply and cruelly wronged ! 
Without her presence the light of his palace is dark- 
ness. He is seriously considering her recall. What 
are " the laws of the Persians and the Modes " to him ? 
His will is a higher law. Vashti must return. 

The wise men and chief councilors read the king's 
thoughts. They are alarmed. If Vashti be recalled, 
their own lives will be forfeited to her rage. If she 
be not recalled, an explosion of the king's wrath may 
doom them to death. They must at ajl hazards pre- 
vent the recall of the queen, and at the same time 
steal away from her the heart of the king. Here is 
their only safety. Having determined upon their 
course, they come to the king with the following fair 
recommendations. " Let there be fair young virgins 
sought for the king" — those who are beautiful, chaste, 
young, and marriageable — " and let the king appoint 
officers in all the provinces of the kingdom, that they 
may gather together all the fair young virgins unto 
Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto 
the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper* 
of the women," or of the virgins who have not yet 
been presented to the king; "and let their things 
for purification be given them ; and let the maiden 
which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti." 
— Esther ii, 2— L 

Here is safety for themselves and solace for their 
royal master. The whole empire must feed the king's 



106 Beauty Crowned. 

harem. No one when bidden dare refuse to yield to 
the king's officers. No parent, though he knows that 
he will never again see his daughter, dare utter a 
word of expostulation. 

" And the thing pleased the king ; and he did so." 
And now preparations are made in all the prov- 
inces for the vigorous prosecution of the Grecian war. 
The governors and generals of military renown have 
received their orders, and, to merit a kingly reward, 
are anxious to lead their troops to the general ren- 
dezvous at Sardis, in " the most gallant array."* 
Greece is invaded, overwhelming disaster meets the 
mighty army, the king returns inglorious, and is 
again in Shushan the palace. 

* Herodotus, vii, 26. 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 107 



YI. 

THE QUEENLINESS OP BEAUTY. 

"There was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai." — Esth. ii, 5. 
" He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter." 
— Esther ii, 7. 

u The maid was fair and beautiful." — Esther ii, 1. 

The captivity of Jelioiacliin, the last direct heir of 
the house of David, one whom God had forsaken, was 
an occasion of great mourning. The captives are 
hurried away to a distant land that they know not. 
Dean Stanley, drawing from the Scriptures, is graphic 
in his description : " From the top of Lebanon, from 
the heights of Bashan, from the ridges of Abarim, the 
widowed country shrieked aloud as she saw the train 
of her captive king and nobles disappearing in the 
distant East. From the heights of Hermon, from 
the top of Mizar, it is no improbable conjecture that 
the departing king poured that exquisitely plaintive 
song, in which, from the deep disquietude of his heart, 
he longs after the presence of God in the temple, and 
pleads his cause against the impious nation, the 
treacherous and unjust man, who, in spite of plighted 
faith, had torn him away from his beloved home. 
With streaming eyes the Jewish people and prophets 



108 



T> E A U T Y C RO W N I S D . 



still hung on the hope that their lost prince would he 
speedily restored to them. The gate through which 
he had left the city was walled up, like that by which 
the last Moorish king left Granada, and was long 
known as the gate of Jeconiah. From his captivity, 
as from a decisive era, the subsequent years of history 
were reckoned." 

Exile must have been a severe punishment to the 

Jew, bound as he was to 
his native land not only 
by the most enthusiastic 
patriotism, but also by 
the strongest religious as- 
sociations and instincts. 

^s^i W^L IJ8^^\\ P a ^ es f me was most sacred 

*^r^ Ml INSisVX soil, Jerusalem was the 

center and home of his 

religion, and the temple 

was the most holy place. 

In a strange land the 

Jewish Captives. captive remembered Zion, 

prayed toward Jerusalem, and lovingly and longingly 

thought of his own dear country. 

The exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar led captive to 
Babylon with Jehoiachin dwelt as a colony on the 
banks of the Chebar — according to Eawlinson, one 
of the branches of the Euphrates, near Babylon, but 
according to Layard the Khabour — and there main- 




The Queenllness of Beauty. 109 

tained an organization, consisting of elders and chiefs, 
with power of acting for the whole body. Most in- 
fluential among them was Ezekiel, the prophet, the 
poet, the statesman. Drawing from his surroundings 
his bold and original figures, luxuriant in eagle- 
winged lions and human-headed bulls, wheels within 
wheels, glorious rainbow lights and gigantic forms, 
now again revealed to our fleshly eyes from the ruins 
of Nineveh and other -Oriental cities, the prophet 
moves among his fellow-captives and talks to them 
about the great events in the midst of which they live 
and act. 

But across the great Euphrates, across the desert, 
he looks, and his spirit yearns for his native land. He 
sees in prophetic vision the war, the carnage, the. de- 
vastation, the desolation, and a grief deep and terrible 
weighs down his loyal soul. The burden of the woes 
of his country' presses heavily upon his heart. Of 
these things he speaks and writes while he watches 
anxiously the progress of events. Jerusalem is be- 
sieged and falls, and his heart almost breaks. 

The prophet, however, was not discouraged. He 
looked forward to another and better dispensation, 
when God's spirit should breathe into dry bones and 
they should live, and stand up, an exceeding great 
army. He was sure that a greater glory would come 
to his nation, and there was no cause for despair but 
rather for good courage. Ezekiel had deep spiritual 



110 Beauty Crowned. 

vision. He saw the Gospel truths. If any man turn 
away from his wickedness " he shall save his soul 
alive." Each man must live for himself and each 
man must die for himself. He believes in the gospel 
of personal responsibility. Wicked nations, one 
after the other, fall. He sees their doom. They are 
destroyed because of their sins. But God will not 
cast off his own people. His eyes are upon them, 
and they will repent and be saved. 

In Babylon the exiles were educated amid scenes of 
mighty grandeur and magnificence. The wall of the 
city is one of the great wonders of the world. The 
hanging gardens — artificial mountains — are no less 
wonderful. The great palace of the king is a city 
within itself. The Temple of Bel, six hundred feet 
in height, with its seven stages of different colors — 
black, orange, crimson, gold, deep yellow, brilliant 
blue, and silver — may well remind them of the Tower 
of Babel, whose top was to reach to heaven. The 
magnificent gardens, the gigantic trees, the luxuriant 
vegetation, the great river, the system of canals, the 
broad plain carpeted with flowers, the vast commerce, 
the soldiery with burnished helmet and spear, the 
officers, "the satraps, captains, pachas, the chief 
judges, treasurers, judges, counselors, and all the 
rulers of the provinces," with their splendid costumes 
and armor — the magicians, sorcerers, astrologers, 
Chaldeans, the science, the sculpture, the painting, 



The Queenliness of Beauty. Ill 

the music, " flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, 
and all kinds of music," the activity of trade, 
" the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious 
stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, 
and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all 
manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of 
most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and mar- 
ble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and 
frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and 
wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, 
and slaves, and souls of men "—these tilings furnish 
the school in which the exiles are receiving most 
valuable tuition. And here dwells Nebuchadnezzar, 
" whose brightness is excellent," a tree " whose 
leaves are fair and the fruit thereof much, and in it 
meat for all," under which the beasts of the field 
dwell, and upon whose branches the fowls of the air 
have their habitation — a mighty monarch who can say 
truthfully * " Is not this great Babylon, that I have 
built for the house of my kingdom, by the might of 
my power, and for the honor of my majesty ? " 

These first exiles are joined by others under Zede- 
kiah, and the two groups doubtless soon blend together. 
They receive a letter of consolation and instruction 
from Jeremiah. Prophecies are committed to writing 
and read to the people. The pen becomes a powerful 
instrument. The word is read and studied, and its 
spiritual meaning is revealed. Musicians cheer the 



112 



Beauty Crowned. 



sad exiles with songs of Zion, but will not play to 
satisfy the idle curiosity of their masters. A Psaliri 
commemorates their condition : " By the rivers of 
Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when- we 

remembered Zion. We 
hanged our harps upon 
the willows in the midst 
thereof. For there they 
that carried us away 
captive required of us 
a song; and they that 
wasted us required of 
us mirth, saying, Sing 
us one of the songs of 
Zion. How shall we 




JUDEA QAPTA. 



sing the Lord's song in a strange land \ If I forget 
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her 
cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jeru- 
salem above my chief joy." Psa. cxxxvii, 1-6. 

The writings which refer to the period of the 
captivity show quite fully its dark side. The Israel- 
ites are thrown into dungeons with scanty food, they 
are shamefully insulted and scourged, they are com- 
pelled to eat that which to Jewish law is most urn 
clean, they sing mournful songs, and look forward to 
the time when all their wrongs shall be made right, 
they cry for deliverance, with eager longing they 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 113 

watch for the morning of that day of triumph which 
they believe will come, they pour out their prayers 
from breaking hearts, their tears fall, and they speak 
of the wickedness of their captors and look to God to 
avenge himself upon his enemies. And yet they 
think hopefully of Zion ! They pray: "Build thou 
the walls of Jerusalem. O, that salvation would 
come out of Zion ! When God bringeth back the 
captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and 
Israel shall be glad. God will save Zion, and will 
build the cities of Judah : that they may dwell there, 
and have it in possession. Redeem Israel, God, out 
of all his troubles." 

But there was also a bright side to the captivity. 
There was a wheel within a wheel — God's providence 
directed to an end. 

When the Babylonian empire fell, the slavery of 
the captives — it must have been a modified slavery to 
which some of them had been reduced — this slavery 
ceased. They were colonists from the beginning. 
Babylon became the center of Jewish learning and 
the second capital of their race. Following the advice 
of their prophets, they acquired homes, property and 
slaves, and even surrounded themselves with luxuries. 
Jehoiachin, after a long imprisonment, was released, 
and maintained with highest honors at public expense. 
There was even a semblance of independent govern- 
ment, and the exiles had doubtless synagogues in 
8 



114 Beauty Crowned. 

which to worship. Some were appointed to high 
offices in the government. 

The captivity seems to have taught the exiles the 
importance of spiritual worship. They sought God 
in prayer, and gave themselves to the study of the 
Holy Scriptures. They must also have recognized 
the fact that their God was also the God of all the 
nations of the world. Their hearts went out in love 
toward humanity, and they hoped for the redemption 
of the whole human race. 

Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, takes 
Babylon, and the great city, " the praise of the whole 
earth, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellency, the lady of kingdoms," is de- 
stroyed, never to be inhabited "from generation to 
generation," a prophecy requiring for its complete 
fulfillment several hundred years, but whose begin- 
nings were fulfilled before the eyes of the Jewish 
exiles. And the captive looked for an everlasting 
kingdom which the Lord of heaven should set up, 
and which should never be destroyed. 

Cyrus is moved by Jehovah to issue a decree per- 
mitting the exiles to return to Jerusalem, and many 
availed themselves of the privilege, though perhaps 
not more than one sixth of the whole number. 
Family and business interests influenced the majority 
to remain. Forty-two thousand besides slaves, un- 
der the leadership of twelve chiefs, turn their faces 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 115 

toward Zion, returning with songs and everlasting 
joy upon their heads. Other groups of pious Jews 
in later years returned to the land of their fa- 
thers' sepulchers. Among these most prominent 
were Ezra the scribe, the father of preaching; and 
Nehemiah, the warrior and statesman ; both noble 
reformers. 

Of the ten tribes who were carried away into cap- 
tivity, some returned with the Jews, some embraced 
the religion of the Assyrians, some amalgamated 
with the exiles of Judah, and some were scattered 
abroad and carried the knowledge of the true God to 
the doors of many heathen nations. The twelve 
tribes were again united in their exile. 

Before the captivity many Israelites had settled in 
Egypt, and Jews afterward fled from JSTebuzaradan 
to Egypt. Still others established themselves in 
Sheba in Arabia, where their influence became very 
great. They were literally " dispersed among the 
people in all the provinces " of the Persian empire. 
Whether coming from the kingdom of Israel or from 
the kingdom of Judah, whether going into enforced 
or voluntary exile, their influence must have been 
great in preparing the way of the Lord among the 
heathen. 

Among the noble captives who accompanied Je- 
hoiachin to Babylon was Kish, a Benjamite, from 
whom the fourth in descent was Mordecai, "who 



116 Beauty Crowned. 

brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's 
daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and 
the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, 
when her father and mother were dead, took for 
his own daughter." Bawlinson identifies Mordecai, 
" the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish," 
with Matacas, whom Ctesias names as the most pow- 
erful of the eunuchs in the court of the kino- during 
the latter part of his reign. It has been thought that 
Jair, Shimei, and Kish were not the immediate an- 
cestors of Mordecai, but renowned names in the 
ancestral line. Jair may have been his father, 
Shimei the son of Gera who cursed David, and 
Kish the father of Saul.* This would make Mor- 
decai and his cousin Esther of royal descent. This 
supposition, however, cannot be pressed. Both were 
born in exile. Abihail, the father of Esther, was 
dead. Her mother was also dead, and she was left an 
orphan in the land of captivity. Fortunate for the 
beautiful Jewish maiden, she found a protector and 
fattier in her cousin Mordecai, who took her " for his 
own daughter." 

" Mordecai was one of those characters which be- 
speak the hand of a special providence in their forma- 
tion. Brought up in obscurity, lie possessed talents 
which fitted him for swaying the scepter of empire — 
wisdom, public spirit, decision, courage, disinterest- 

* Kcil. 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 117 

edness, self-command. He was also pious, patriotic, 
and benevolent." * Mordecai saved the beautiful 
maiden from many temptations and dangers. He 
showed himself in every respect a man of God. 

" And the maid was fair and beautiful " — gracef til 
in form and bearing, and beautiful in countenance. 

" She was called Hadassah — meaning ' myrtle ' — 
because of her sweet disposition and kindly acts, 
which were compared to the fragrant perfume and 
ever fresh beauty of the myrtle." It was, doubtless, 
after she had been introduced to the royal harem that 
she received, according to the custom of the times, a 
second, and foreign,, name, Esther, which ever after- 
ward became her favorite name. Her matchless beauty 
suggested this second name, meaning " star." The 
names Estelle or Stella, and the name of the goddess 
of love, Istar or Ashtoreth, are from the same root. 

The whole universe is bathed in beauty. It gleams 
in the sea-shell, it glows in the warm sunshine, it 
plays in the chasing shadows, it toys with the 
petals of lily and violet, it paints the plumage of 
bird and the armature of insect, it dances in the hail- 
shower, it sleeps in the glacier, it is cradled in the 
silver lake, it sports in the meandering stream, it 
hides itself in the depths of the ocean and the mount- 
ain cave, it ushers in the day as the rosy-fingered 
daughter of the morning, it rejoices in the flowers of 

* McCrie. 



118 Beauty Crowned. 

spring and the out-pouring wealth of summer, and 
in the golden grain and luscious fruits of autumn, it 
arches the sky with the many-colored iris and lights 
up the northern night with the brilliant electric dis- 
play of the aurora, it kisses the rose into blushes and 
drinks nectar from the fairy cup of the lily of the 
valley, it touches the autumn foliage with its magic 
brush, and the whole forest becomes one blaze of 
glory. The light, fleecy clouds, sailing through the 
air, the crystal and the pearl, the snow-flake, so deli- 
cate that it is dissolved by the touch of a fairy's 
finger, the meadow-grass rolling wave on wave, the 
tall tree of the forest raising its arms to heaven as if 
to supplicate blessings, the tearful willow, the stately 
palm, the confiding vine, the tiny blade of grass, the 
woody dell — these are most beautiful objects. 

The microscope reveals the beauties of the infinitely 
small ; the telescope and the spectroscope bring the 
distant near. Every smallest atom of matter is run- 
ning, leaping, and dancing with delight; the worlds 
above us sing as they fly ; galaxies and nebular star- 
dust proclaim the glory of God. Sun and silver moon 
adorn the sky. The stars walk out as sentinels on 
the blue pavement ; their faces are reflected in the 
mirror of the waters. The curling smoke climbs 
upward to heaven, the sun chases the mists from the 
valleys, the world puts on her green robe, the blanket 
of night is spread and nature sleeps. The bird sings 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 119 

her beautiful song, the breeze whispers soft and low, 
the leaf rustles a welcome to the forest solitude, the 
insect flits in the sunlight and is happy, the lambkin 
skips and plays, the cattle of a thousand hills rejoice. 
The fish sports in the sea, the bird in the air, the in- 
sect in the dust. Sweet the song of nature's choris- 
ters, glad the shout of the waterfall, grand the un- 
written music that fills creation. The swallow skims 
meadow and stream, the eagle with outspread wings 
soars in the upper air, the tireless humming-bird sips 
honey from the flower, the yellow-bird describes 
graceful geometric curves in her flight. Unity in 
variety, gracefulness, harmony, utility every where ! 
Beautiful colors, beautiful forms, beautiful sounds, 
beautiful motions the world over ! Nature ever moves 
in lines of beauty. " Beauty is the moment of tran- 
sition, as if the form were just ready to flow into 
other forms." The ocean of beauty in which the 
world swims to-day is such as was never seen before, 
nor shall be seen again. With each moment all is 
changed and all is new. 

Beauty is an expression of God's thought. In its 
presence a feeling akin to that of worship possesses the 
soul. There is recognized a beauty far deeper than that 
which we see — unexplored and unexplorable. What is 
visible is but the veil which conceals beauty, or through 
which beauty dimly shines. The most beautiful ob- 
ject is that from which the divine looks most freely. 



120 Beauty Cjrowned. 

There is a boundless and fathomless sea. We gaze 
and lose ourselves — enjoyment is at its height. It is 
something within an object which makes it beautiful. 
The highest kind of beauty belongs to man. Em- 
erson says : " Every spirit makes its home ; and we 
can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhab- 
itant. But not less does nature furnish us with every 
sign of grace and goodness. The delicious faces of 
children, the beauty of school-girls, ' the sweet serious- 
ness of sixteen,' the lofty air of well-born, well-bred 
boys, the passionate histories in the looks and manners 
of youth and early manhood, and the varied power in 
all that well-known company that escort us through 
life — we know how these forms thrill, paralyze, pro- 
voke, inspire, and enlarge us " The loveliness of the 
hnman form reaches its height in woman. "To Eve," 
say the Mohammedans, " God gave two thirds of all 
beauty," and it has not become less among her daugh- 
ters. The virtuous and accomplished Pauline de 
Viguiere, of Toulouse, was so enchanting in her love- 
liness that she quite intoxicated her native city. When 
she appeared on the balcony twice a week, at the com- 
mand of the civil authorities, the throng who came to 
behold her beauty was so great as to endanger life. 
Walpole says : "The concourse was so great when the 
Duchess of Hamilton was presented to court, on Fri- 
day, that even the noble crowd in the drawing-room 
clambered on chairs and tables to look at her. There 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 121 

are mobs at their doors to see them get into their 
chairs, and people go early to get places at the theaters 
Avlien it is known thej will be there." Elsewhere he 
says : " Such crowds nock to see the Duchess of Ham- 
ilton that seven hundred people sat up all night, in 
and about an inn, in Yorkshire, to see her get into 
her post-chaise next morning." 

Beauty may become a dangerous possession. Cleo- 
patra was at once the most beautiful and the wickedest 
of queens. We have little admiration for Judith. 
Beauty, when sustained by character, thought, and 
heart, is priceless. Mere beauty of person charms no 
longer when we miss moral beauty, while an ugly face 
becomes positively quite tolerable when we discover 
a pure soul behind the face. " There are faces so 
fluid with expression, so flushed and rippled by the 
play of thought, that we can hardly find what the 
mere features really are." Character throws an im- 
mortal splendor about a soul. The pure shall shine 
as stars. A beautiful soul gathers beauties as it passes 
through the world. 

So far as beauty is not spiritual, so far as it has not its 
permanent home in the heart and thought of God, it is 
fleeting indeed. All visible forms are short-lived ; 
the sweetest songs die in the singing. Yet we in- 
stinctively recognize true beauty as immortal. When- 
ever a beautiful form or a beautiful thought is created 
the world adopts it, locks it up in memory, multiplies 



122 Beauty Ckowned. 

it, immortalizes it. The beautiful is spiritual aud 
everlasting. All language recognizes this truth. 
When we use the word beauty with reference to the 
invisible and immaterial, we may, after all, be using 
words in the most just sense. We speak of the beauty 
of the adaptation of means to an end, the beauty of a 
mathematical demonstration, a beautiful experiment, 
a beautiful poem, a beautiful act, a beautiful thought, 
a beautiful life, a beautiful death. Such beauty 
abides forever. There are beauties quite near which 
are immeasurable and divine. It is a part of that 
which enspheres the earth and bej ewels the sky. All 
faces and forms would be beautiful had lives been 
always pure. As it is, a face is a sculptured history, 
in which, as Emerson says, there are many chapters 
of foibles, follies, and sins. The art of beauty is to 
live a beautiful life, to bid the Holy Spirit welcome 
to come in and beautify his own temple and there 
abide. 

" Esther, in addition to her outward comeliness, was 
modest, engaging, contented, and possessed all those 
amiable qualities which adorn the individual, while 
they make him useful to society. Beauty is one of 
the gifts of nature; but if it consist only in symmetry 
of form and fineness of coloring, it is no more than a 
beautiful statue ; it can only gratify the eye." * 

We are quite prepared, then, to learn that " when 

* McCrie. 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 123 

the king's commandment and his decree was heard, 
and when many maidens were gathered together 
unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, 
Esther was brought also unto the king's house to the 
custody of Hegai, keeper of the women." By her 
gracefulness of person and movement, beauty of 
face, queenly dignity, and modesty of demeanor, she 
quickly won the favor of Hegai, who did not fail to 
advance her interests. 

" He speedily gave her things for purification," that 
she might be among the first to be presented to the 
great king. Exod. xxx, 23-25 ; Prov. vii, 17. And 
he furnished her " such things as belonged to her," or 
food best adapted to the development of both health 
and beauty. To each virgin be gave seven maidens 
from the king's service to keep her company and 
do her bidding, but the maidens which he assigned 
Esther were seven picked maidens. To complete the 
furnishment of his favorite he selected for her use 
the finest suite of rooms at his command in the whole 
palace. 

Esther, in obedience to the suggestion of Mordecai, 
" had not showed her people nor her kindred." Her 
kindred may have been kept a secret for prudential 
reasons, for, had her nationality been known, perhaps 
she would not have been chosen for the royal harem. 
It will be remembered that the king, according to law, 
could take a wife from but seven of the leading 



124: Beauty Crowned. 

families of Persia. Mordecai may have shrewdly 
-judged that, were her Jewish extraction known, her 
hopes of royal favor would have been blasted. In 
this, however, he would have forgotten the supremacy 
of despotic will. 

Herodotus relates the following account of the 
marriage of Cambyses : " It was not the custom of the 
Persians, before his time, to marry their sisters — but 
Cambyses, happening to fall in love with one of his, 
and wishing to take her to wife, as he knew that it 
was an uncommon thing, called together the royal 
judges, and put it to them, 'whether there was any 
law which allowed a brother, if he wished, to marry 
his sister % ' Now the royal judges are certain picked 
men among the Persians, who hold their office for 
life, or until they are found guilty of some miscon- 
duct. By them justice is administered in Persia, and 
they are the interpreters of the old laws, all disputes 
being referred to their decision. When Cambyses, 
therefore, put his question to these judges, they gave 
him an answer which was at once true and safe — ' they 
did not find any law,' they said, ' allowing a brother 
to take his sister to wife, but they found a law, that 
the king of the Persians might do what he pleased.' 
And so they neither warped the law through fear of 
Cambyses, nor ruined themselves by over stiffly main- 
taining the law ; but they brought another quite dis- 
tinct law to the king's help, which allowed him to 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 125 

have his wish. Cambyses, therefore, married the 
object of his love, and no long time afterward he 
took to wife another sister. It was the younger of 
these who went with him into Egypt, and there suf- 
fered death at his hands." * 

Artaxerxes Memnon married two of his own 
daughters. In Egypt brother and sister might marry, 
and in the age of the patriarchs a man might 
marry his half sister. Gen. xx, 12. Xerxes, then, 
would not have found the law an insuperable objec- 
tion to his marriage with the Jewish maiden. Mor- 
decai may not have known the ease with which a 
Persian king could circumvent the law " which 
changeth not." 

" And Mordecai walked every day before the court 
of the women's house to know how Esther did, and 
what should become of her." 

" Mordecai occupied, apparently, an humble place 
in the royal household. He was probaWy one of the 
porters or door-keepers at the main entrance of the 
palace. See ver. 21, and comp. chap.iii, 2; v. 13, etc. 
His position separated him from his adopted daughter, 
and some effort was needed to keep up communica- 
tion with her." f 

He " walked " up and down every day. " Morde- 
cai's fatherly care is beautiful; equaled only by 
Esther's filial affection and obedience." % 

* Herodotus, iii, 31. f Eawlinson. % Greene. 



126 Beaoty Ckowned. 

"Indeed, every day hardly does justice to the 
double emphasis of the original in its expression of 
Mordecai's intense anxiety." * 

In this life of the beautiful Jewish maiden, which 
is now opening to our study, we behold the complete 
consecration of personal qualities to God and his 
cause. Among the talents with which she was en- 
dowed may be reckoned her personal beauty. This 
she counted sacred to the service of her divine king. 
Every power of mind, every affection of heart, every 
moral quality, every advantage of social position, 
every material possession, and every personal attrac- 
tion are so many talents to be used for God's glory. 

Esther was ever obedient to the calls and indica- 
tions of Providence. The great man is the man who 
recognizes providences, yields to the voices which 
command from the unseen world, and seizes oppor- 
tunities as they pass. He it is who ever strives to 
keep near the heart of God. Only the loving and 
loyal soul can God effectively use as an instrument for 
the accomplishment of his purposes. Only such a 
soul lives in harmony with himself, liis surroundings, 
and his God. He falls naturally into God's plan, and, 
like every creature in its appropriate place, is omnipo- 
tent within his sphere. Esther was passive in God's 
hands to be directed, and active and prompt to obey 
the will of her Father in heaven. 
* Alcott. 



The Queenliness of Beauty. 127 

The law of providential systems is easily discovera- 
ble in this history. Around the Israelitish nation as 
a central sun there revolved, with greater or less regu- 
larity, the planets of God's providences. Every thing 
had reference to this central body. It gave out its 
light to enlighten surrounding peoples ; they in turn 
worked out God's designs. Wars, revolutions, dis- 
coveries, centuries, great men, national calamities, 
natural catastrophies — all, controlled by the Omnipo- 
tent Hand, worked together for the good of this cen- 
tral sun. God never lost sight of his own people. 
Their exile, which threatened destruction to the race, 
proved a blessing : the heathen influences which sur- 
rounded them drove the remnant nearer to God. 

Providential systems revolve around the individual 
who is loyal to the cause of righteousness. God sees 
the ones. " All things work together for the good of 
the ones. Things are done as they are in this world 
with reference to the chosen of God. Israel is safe as 
a nation so long as it is loyal to Jehovah. Esther is 
safe in the land of her exile so long as she is true to 
the God of her fathers. God found her, recognized 
her worth, and placed her on a throne. She was now 
in a position to help her people. So ever work God's 
providences. The world is governed to serve spiritual 
ends. Each loyal soul is a center around which num- 
berless providences revolve. These providences work 
together for the true interests of the soul. 



128 Beauty Crowned. 

The Christian to-day is watched over, guarded, 
defended, and delivered. All things are his. He 
is ensphered in the Lord, and no harm can touch 
his soul. There are no favorites in God's kingdom. 
Every daughter of Christ is as dear to him as was 
Esther ^ and every believer in Christ is a prince of 
the blood. The kingdoms of to-day are ruled by the 
Omnipotent for the advancement of his cause and 
the good of his people. 



Enthroned and Crowned. 129 



CHAPTER TIL 

ENTHRONED AND CROWNED. 

" And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained 
grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he 
set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of 
Vashti." — Esther ii, 17. 

Esther was now in the palace of the great king. 
Her food was the choicest which the king's bounty 
could supply ; she occupied the most spacious and the 
most elegantly furnished and at the same time the 
pleasantest suite of apartments in all "the king's 
house," and seven maidens rare of beauty and ac- 
complishments waited to do her bidding while she 
enjoyed the special favoritism of Hegai, " the king's 
chamberlain." 

Twelve months preparation were necessary before 
she could be presented to the king. During this 
time she was put to the strictest diet and discipline of 
purification. Luxurious baths were provided with 
costliest perfumes and unguents. " Six months with 
oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and 
with other things " were appointed for her purifica- 
tion "according to the manner of the women." All 

this was done to insure perfect health of body, the 
9 



130 Beauty Crowned. 

greatest beauty of face and symmetry of form, and 

aoothness and softness of skin. 

The art of beauty among Oriental nations was a 
most important study. The eyes, the teeth, the lips, 
the hair, the nails, the arms — the whole body was 
studied, beautified and adorned. 




Articles for the Toilet. 



Lane describes the process of coloring the eyelids 
among the Egyptians : " The eyes, with very few ex- 
ceptions, are black, large, and of a long almond form, 
with long and beautiful lashes, and an exquisitely soft, 
bewitching expression ; eyes more beautiful can hardly 
be conceived; their charming effect is much heightened 
by the concealment of the other features (however 
pleasing the latter may be), and is rendered still more 
striking by a practice universal among the females of 



Enthroned and Crowned. 131 

the higher and middle classes, and very common 
among those of the lower orders, which is that of black- 
ening the edge of the eye-lids, both above and below 
the eyes, with a black powder called kohl. This is a 
collyrium, commonly composed of the smoke-black 
which is produced by burning a kind of libdm — an 
aromatic resin — a species of frankincense, used, I am 
told, in preference to the better kind of frankincense, 
as being cheaper, and equally good for the purpose. 
Kohl is also prepared of the smoke-black produced 
from burning the shells of almonds. These two 
kinds, though believed to be beneficial to the eyes, 
are used merely for ornament ; but there are several 
kinds used for their real or supposed medicinal prop- 
erties, particularly the powder of several kinds of 
lead ore, to which are often added sarcocolla, long 
pepper, sugar-candy, fine dust of Venetian squim, and 
sometimes powdered pearls. Antimony, it is said, 
was formerly used for painting the edges of the eyelids. 
The kohl is applied with a small probe of wood, ivory, 
or silver, tapering toward the end, but blunt ; this is 
moistened sometimes with rose-water, then dipped in 
the powder and drawn along the edges of the eyelids." 
The sculptures and paintings on temples and tombs 
show the prevalence of this custom among both sexes 
in most ancient times. The kohl bottles, still contain- 
ing some of the paint and the bodkins for applying it, 
have been found, after a burial of thousands of years. 



132 



Beauty Cjrowned. 




Painting the eyes is mentioned in the Scriptures. It 
prevailed also among the ladies of Greece. 

The number, variety, and weight of the ornaments 
worn by the Orientals were most extravagant, as meas- 
ured by modern west- 
ern ideas. The ladies 
of ancient Egypt wore 
earrings of great size, 
and bracelets, armlets, 
and anklets of the most 
ear-drops. varied character. These 

ornaments were frequently richly inlaid with enamel 
or precious stones. Hand- 
some and costly goLd or 
bead necklaces were high- 
ly esteemed. The modern 
Egyptians vie with the an- 
cients in the number, va- 
riety, beauty, and value of 
their ornaments. " Most of 
the women of the lower 
orders wear a variety of 
trumpery ornaments," thus rivaling the rich and no- 
ble in their desire for display. 

The inhabitants of Palestine and the surrounding 
countries were equally fond of personal adornment. 
Earrings, nose-rings, bracelets, signets, gold neck- 
chains, and trinkets of various kinds, both of gold and 




'WWWWW 

Neck Collars. 



Enthroned and Crowned. 133 

of silver, were abundant. Such, ornaments supplied 
the gold from which were made the sacred utensils of 
the tabernacle. The laver of brass was constructed 
from the brazen mirrors of the women's toilet. The 
Israelites gathered from the slain Midianites orna- 
ments to the amount of sixteen thousand seven hun- 
dred and fifty shekels ; and again, after the defeat of 
the same peoj)le by Gideon, there were obtained nose- 
rings to the amount of one thousand and seven hun- 
dred shekels of gold, besides collars and earrings. 

The love of ornament is rebuked by Isaiah : " In 
that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their 
anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents ; the pendants, 
and the bracelets, and the mufflers ; the head-tires, and 
the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume 
boxes, and the amulets ; the rings, and the nose jewels ; 
the festival robes, and the mantels, and the shawls, 
and the satchels ; the hand mirrors, and the fine linen, 
and the turbans, and the veils." Isa. iii, 18-23. The 
ankle chains gave the mincing walk supposed to char- 
acterize the nobility. 

The Mishna, in speaking of proper articles of dress 
and announcing its law, says : " A woman must not 
go out (on the Sabbath) with linen or woolen laces, 
nor with the straps on her head : nor with a frontlet 
and pendants thereto, unless sown to her cap : nor 
with a golden tower (that is, an ornament in the 
shape of a tower) : nor with a tight gold chain : nor 



134 Beauty Crowned. 

with nose-rings : nor with finger rings on which there 
is no seal : nor with a needle without an eye : nor 
with a finger ring that has a seal on it : nor with a 
diadem : nor with a smelling bottle or balm flask." 
A man may go out with knee-buckles, but not with 
an amulet, nor a step-chain. There was much reason 
for the apostle Paul's recommending the women to 
adorn themselves " not with braided hair, or gold, or 
pearls, or costly array, but with good works," and 
with " the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, 
which is in the sight of God of great price." Orna- 
ments were most lavishly displayed especially at fes- 
tivals, when every lady was desirous of appearing at 
her best. 

The early Chaldean women wore bronze and iron 
bangles and amulets, and bracelets of rings or beads ; 
also earrings and rings for the toes. These various 
rings were shell, bronze, or iron. Strings of gold 
and agate beads surrounded the neck. The men 
wore seal-cylinders of agate or other hard stone, and 
sometimes rings and bracelets, the last being occa- 
sionally of gold. 

The Assyrians and Babylonians were also doubtless 
given to extravagant personal adornment, though the 
monuments afford meager information on this point. 
The Persians, when the great empire was at the 
height of its magnificence, lavished upon themselves 
richest jewelry and most gorgeous attire. The cus- 



Enthroned and Crowned. 



135 



toin of using dyes to enhance the brilliancy of the 
eyes, and give them greater apparent size and soft- 
ness, was borrowed by the Persians from the Medes. 

After all possible care, few were the fortunate con- 
cubines who were called the second time to the kind's 
apartments. " Now when every maid's turn came to 
go into King Ahasuerus,* in the evening she went, and 
on the morrow she returned into the second house of 
the women, to the custody of Shaasiigaz, the king's 
chamberlain, which kept the king's concubines. She 
came in unto the king no more, except the king de- 
lighted in her, and that she were called by name." It 
is not a matter for wonder that each maid used every 
art to enhance her beauty, and that " whatever she 
desired " of ornaments and jewelry were given her 
by Hegai. 

"■Now when the turn of 
Esther, the daughter of 
Abihail, the uncle of Mor- 
decai, who had taken her 
for his daughter, was come 
to go in unto the king, she 
required nothing but what 
Hegai, the king's cham- 
berlain, the keeper of the 

women, appointed." This was quite different from 
the choice of the other virgins. 




Herodotus refers to the custom iu iii, 69. 



136 



Beauty Crowned. 



" IS T o doubt the virgins generally took the opportu- 
nity — one that would occur but once in their lives — 
to load themselves with precious ornaments of various 
kinds, necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings, anklets, and the 
like. Esther allowed Hegai to dress her as he would."* 

"Not, perhaps, because of shrewdness, as if she de- 
pended on the fact that Hegai understood best the 
taste of the king ; she did not design to please the 
king by means of ornamentation, and only put on 
what was deemed indispensable by Hegai/' f 

"Thus, as ever, it proves 
that true piety is the highest 
ornament, even in a heathen's 
sight, and modesty is the 
brightest jewel of female 
beauty." 1 Pet. iii, 3, 44 

There was certainly no inten- 
tional shrewdness on the part 
of Esther in leaving her personal adornment to the 
judgment of Hegai, yet doubtless she was thereby en- 
abled to appear in dress and ornaments most pleasing 
to the taste of the king. Her beauty of face and 
form, her modesty of dress, and her gracefulness of 
manners, conquered his heart. The riches of her 
mind and the affections of her gentle heart, her dis- 
cretion, dutifulness, and integrity, and all fair quali- 
ties, adorned her pure life. 

* Rawlinson. ' f Schultz. | Strong. 




jwyvw wv -'>_,£ 
yAAA/jj,/-^/ ;, t: ""■ \,_U 

Armlets. 



Enthroned and Crowned. 137 

The preparation which Esther made when called 
to enter the presence of the king met with the com- 
mendation of all who knew her. " And Esther ob- 
tained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon 
her." 

At length she was ushered into the apartments of 
her royal lord. It was in the month Tebeth, four 
years after the divorce of Yashti. The ancient Chal- 
deans named the month Tebit, " the month of the 
cave of the rising sun," the month in which the an- 
cients celebrated the birth of the new sun after his 
death and concealment amid the fogs and storms of 
" the month of thick clouds," or Kislev. It corre- 
sponds with December-January, in which Christians 
celebrate the birth of the Sun of Righteousness. In 
this month, then, the Myrtle of Israel went into the 
house royal, and in this month the star of the exile 
shone forth. The king was enamored of the beautiful 
Jewish maiden at the first. Mordecai, whose anxiety 
was deep and tender, could rejoice in the fortunes of 
his fair cousin. " The king loved Esther above all 
the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his 
sight more than all the virgins ; so that he set the 
royal crown upon her head, and made her queen in- 
stead of Yashti." 

The wedding was celebrated with a magnificence 
commensurate with the greatness, the wealth, and the 
glory of the kingdom. As a special honor to the 



138 Beauty Crowned. 

successful favorite, the feast was called "Esther's 
feast." Princes, embassadors, nobles, conquerors, 
and ail great men were present. The king, as ever, 
was proud and haughty, while Esther, dazzling all 
with her beauty, charming all with her modesty and 
grace, and captivating all by her noble and yet gentle 
bearing, walked a queen. 

It was the custom of Persian kings to dispense 
royal favors and bounties with an open hand upon 
all great occasions. The subjects of Pseudo-Smerdis, 
" while his reign lasted, received great benefits from 
him, insomuch that, when he died, all the dwellers in 
Asia mourned his loss exceedingly, except only the 
Persians. For no sooner did he come to the throne 
than forthwith he sent round to every nation under 
his rule and granted them freedom from war-service and 
from taxes for the space of three years." * Speaking 
of the Lacedaemonians, Herodotus says : " They hold 
with the Persians : when the king dies and another 
comes to the throne, the newly-made monarch forgives 
all the Spartans the debts they owe, either to the king 
or to the public treasury. And, in like manner among 
the Persians, each king, when he begins to reign, re- 
mits the tribute due from the provinces." f 

So upon this joyous occasion Xerxes " made a re- 
lease to the provinces." He also " gave gifts," and 
these gifts were " according to the state of the king," 

* Herodotus, iii, 6, 7. f Ibid, vi, 59. 



Enthroned and Crowned. 139 

gifts that became " the honor of his excellent maj- 
esty." 

Persian kings bestowed on their queens and other 
favorites villages and cities, to supply them with ar- 
ticles of food, dress, and other conveniences and lux- 
uries. Certain villages of Syria were given to Pary- 
satis to furnish her with girdles. Anthylla, in Egypt, 
under Persian rule, was assigned to the wife of the 
ruler of Egypt, to keep her in shoes.* 

Socrates says : " I have been informed by a credible 
person who went up to the king (at Susa) that he 
passed through a large tract of excellent land, extend- 
ing for nearly a day's journey, which the people of 
the country called 'the queen's girdle,' and another 
which they called her ' veil,' and several other fair 
and fertile districts, which were reserved for the 
adornment of the queen, and are named after her sev- 
eral habiliments." f 

According to Diodorus, the revenues of Lake Moeris 
were settled on the Queen of Egypt, to supply her 
with ointments, jewels, and other articles connected 
with her toilet. 

In like manner Esther and other favorites of the 
king were royally remembered on this day of happy 
auspices, and the fair queen doubtless more than all 
the rest. 

*Xenophon, Anabasis I. iv, 8; Herodotus, ii, 98. 
f Plato, Alcibiadesl. 123. 



110 Beauty Crowned. 

There is another gathering of virgins to replenish 
the royal harem. Mordecai at this time fills some 
office at " the king's gate. 1 ' The queen has not fur- 
gotten her noble cousin and benefactor. ''Esther 
had not jet showed her kindred nor her people, as 
Mordecai had charged her : for Esther did the com- 
mandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought 
up with him." Esther ii, 20. 

tf We have here a daughter bereft of the protection 
of man by the death of her parents, but Cod elevated 
her to great distinction, so that all men gave her 
honor. Why was she carried into exile, but that she 
should reign ? Why bereft of parents, unless that she 
might become the favorite of Cod and man ? " * 

* Brenz. 



The Conspiracy Discovered. 141 



VIII. 

THE CONSPIRACY DISCOVERED. 

" Two of the king's chamberlains . . . sought to lay hand on the 
king." — Esther ii, 21. 

" The thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther." — 
Esther ii, 22. 

" They were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book 
of the chronicles before the king." — Esther ii, 23. 

Troubles multiplied in the palace of the king. 
The sins and excesses which marked his career began 
to bear their legitimate fruit. Among the king's 
chamberlains were two men honored with positions 
near the royal person, and implicitly trusted. These 
were Bigthan or Bigtha, whose name, of good omen, 
has been derived from the old Persian Bagaclana, 
" the God-given," and Teresh, whose name, of doubt- 
ful omen, may possibly be derived from tars, " to 
fear." Through anger, or jealousy, or for some 
other cause, they formed a secret plot to assassinate 
the king, but Mordecai, who also held some position 
at the king's gate, discovered the conspiracy and re- 
ported it to the queen, who at once informed Xerxes. 
The conspirators were apprehended, tried, found 
guilty, and condemned to death. 

Such conspiracies inside the palace were frequent 



142 Beauty Crowned. 

occurrences in Persia. Xerxes, though escaping 
from this and doubtless other plots, was ultimately 
murdered by Artabanus, captain of his guard, and 
Aspamistras, a chamberlain. Artaxerxes Ochus met 
the same fate. 

The criminals were hurried away to execution. 
Various methods of execution are mentioned in the 
Scriptures, of which the most usual were stoning to 
death, and slaying with the » sword or with an ax. 
Executions by means of saws and harrows of iron, 
and by forcing the criminal through a brick-kiln, 
were exceptional and barbarous. 

Bigthan and Teresh were executed by " impale- 
ment." " The punishment inflicted by Xerxes suc- 
ceeded those with which the Assyrians and the Baby- 
lonians and the eastern nations generally were familiar. 
These are exhibited on the marbles and bronzes that 
have been exhumed from the mounds of Assyria. 
There has not yet been shown any example of hang- 
ing by the neck, or of fastening to a cross. There are 
abundant examples of impalement, of which the most 
ancient, those of the Balowat gates (850 B.C ), shows 
the impalement to have been" by passing the stake 
through the body along the spine, sometimes the en- 
tire length of the body. " The method of accom- 
plishing this in modern times, as practiced by the 
Khan of Khiva, has been to make use of two carriages, 
binding the victim to the one, and securing the stake 



The Conspiracy Discovered. 143 

to the other, and thus readily applying any amount 
of force that might be required. In some instances 
cords were bound around the legs of the victim, and 
thus he was drawn down upon the stake. Instances 
of impalement by the Turks of Bosnia are given on 
the best authority as late as 1876." 

In connection with the illustrations of the most 
ancient impalement " are shown the barbarous ampu- 
tation of hands and feet, and the impalement of 
heads. A little later we find numerous impalements 
from below the breast. One slab shows us three of 
these, another fourteen. Darius is said to have im- 
paled three thousand of the nobility of Babylon when 
he took that city." 

"If we would read the Old Testament aright, we 
must understand every case of hanging on a tree, 
except that of Absalom (caught by his hair) as denot- 
ing impalement on a stake, instead of suspension by 
a halter." * 

Thus the conspirators were slain, and the king, ac- 
cording to his custom, caused the name of Mordecai 
to be recorded among his benefactors. 

When the great and mighty host of Xerxes was 
marshaled for the invasion of Greece, the king re- 
viewed his army and fleet. Herodotus gives, the 
following account : " Accordingly he traversed the 

* The Lowell Hebrew Club, The Book of Esther, pp. 126, 127, 130; 
Herodotus, iv, 43; iii, 125, 159; Ezra, vi, II. 



144 Beauty Crowned. 

ranks, seated in his chariot, and going from nation to 
nation made manifold inquiries, while his scribes 
wrote down the answers ; till at last he had passed 
from end to end of the whole land army, both the 
horsemen and likewise the foot. This done he ex- 
changed his chariot for a Sidonian galley, and, seated 
beneath a golden awning, sailed along the prows of 
all his vessels (the vessels having now been hauled 
down and launched into the sea), while he made in- 
quiries again, as he had done when he reviewed the 
land-forces, and caused the answers to be recorded by 
his scribes." 

At the battle of Salainis the king observed care- 
fully the conduct of his troops, " and whenever he 
saw any of his own captains perform any worthy ex- 
ploit, he inquired concerning him ; and the man's 
name was taken down by his scribes, together with 
the names of his father and his city." Phylacus, who 
took a vessel from the Greeks in this great battle, in 
recognition of this heroic action was enrolled by 
Xerxes among the " king's benefactors." 

The Persians called the king's benefactors Orosangs, 
which may mean " those worthy of being recorded." 
The inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia repeatedly 
speak of " recording the name " as the highest honor. 
The right to have such record made belonged exclu- 
sively to the king. Josephus mentions this custom, 
and Thucydides is an authority for its use in Persia. 



The Conspiracy Discovered. 145 

Pausanius, the Spartan commander, prosecuting an 
intrigue with the king., restored certain captives, 
whereupon Xerxes replied : " Thus saith Xerxes, the 
king, to Pausanius. The benefit which thou hast 
done me, in saving the captives who were taken at 
Byzantium beyond the sea, is recorded in my house 
forever." * 

These records are made by direction of the king, 
but probably not by his own hand. He may never 
have consulted a book, nor studied any branch of 
learning, and hence would have been incompetent 
even to record his own edicts. It is quite probable 
that he would consider such work beneath his kingly 
dignity. To pass away his time a scribe sometimes 
read to him from the chronicles of the kings, but he 
took no further interest in these matters. The court 
scribe wrote the letters, edicts and inscriptions. 
The king held councils, reviewed troops, heard com- 
plaints, rendered decisons, tried causes when not 
delegated to " royal judges," distributed rewards and 
punishments, directed the civil administration, led the 
armies to battle, listened to reports concerning the 
condition of affairs in the different provinces of the 
realm, and issued necessary commands. The burden 
of government, however, was frequently placed upon 
some favorite. Much of the attention of the king 

* Herodotus, vii, 100 ; viii, 85, 90; iii, 140; Josephus, Antiquities, 
xi, 6 ; Thucydides, i, 129 ; Diodorous, xvii, 14 ; Aelian, Hist. Var. 40. 
10 



146 Beauty Crowned. 

was directed to the preparation of liis own tomb. In 
his leisure moments he sometimes played dice, carved 
wood or hunted in his paradises. 

The name of Mordecai, then, by direction of the 
king, was enrolled among the king's benefactors in 
"the book of the chronicles." Ctesias claims to have 
had access to these royal archives in the preparation 
of his history, They are mentioned in certain books 
of the Old Testament, and the authors of these books 
seem to have drawn from such records portions of the 
material which is woven into their histories. 



Pride Before a Fall. 147 



IX. 

PRIDE BEFORE A FALL. 

"And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, 
and reverenced Haman." — Esther iii, 2. 

"But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence." — Esther iii, 2. 

The early Amalekites were a powerful and fierce 
people who dwelt in Arabia- Petrsea, between Havilah 
and Shur, or between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. 
They were defeated by Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, 
in the days of Abraham. According to Arabian his- 
torians, their original home was on the Persian Gulf. 
The Assyrians pressed upon them, and, yielding before 
this rising power, they spread over a portion of Arabia 
before its settlement by the Joktanites. The presence 
of the names " Amalek," " the mount of the Amalek- 
ites," and " the tombs of the Amalekites," indicates a 
permanent occupation of Central Palestine in their 
migration westward. The oldest Arab traditions 
make the Amalika descendants from Aram and Lud 
— the Hamite Lud, son of Mizraim, called in the 
Egyptian language " Lut " or " Rut." If this tradi- 
tion be accepted as historic, they were a mixed race 
of Aramsen and Egyptian blood, uniting Shem and 
Ham. 



148 Beauty Crowned. 

The Amalika drove out the Amu from Arabia- 
Petrsea, where they had dwelt since the third and 
fourth Egyptian dynasties, and pushed them back to 
the mountain chain of Sinai. The ancestors of the 
Amalekites may have been the Herusha, and perhaps 
also the Shasu, with whom Egypt contended in the 
early dynasties. " The Saarn of the tribes of Shasu," 
conquered by Rameses III., Brngseh Bey identifies 
with the Seirites, a cave- dwelling people in the ridges 
and concealed places of the wildest mountains. 

It will be remembered that the names of ancient 
peoples are frequently quite flexible in the geograph- 
ical and ethnographical denotations. The name Ama- 
lika may have been used to designate several different 
tribes. 

When Esau fled to Mount Seir, his grandson, Ama- 
lek, settled in the midst of the Amalekites, and possibly 
became the founder of the royal family. This fierce 
race was the first to make war against the Hebrews 
upon their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. 
They seem at that time to have occupied the whole 
of J;he northern part of the peninsula — a wild region, 
suited to a wild race; educating them to freedom, 
endurance, love of the chase, and war. There they 
led a roving life, ranging at will amid wildest scenery, 
over rugged passes and under high cliffs, through 
gigantic forms and virgin forests, where nature is 
still fresh from the hand of God. They are " the first 



Pride Before a Fall. 149 

of the nations," under the leadership of a king who 
bore the hereditary name of Agag, " the fiery." 

The battle took place at Rephidim, " the place of 
rest," the first great halting place, now the valley of 
Paran. Joshua, the Ephraimite, with a chosen army 
met the enemy on the field, while Moses, the leader, 
Aaron, his brother, and Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 
Moses's brother-in-law, the husband of the prophetess 
Miriam, went up to the top of the hill to beseech the 
help of God. " And it came to pass, when Moses 
held up his hand, that Israel prevailed : and when he 
let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses's 
hands were heavy, and they took a stone, and put it 
under him, and he sat thereon ; and Aaron and Hur 
stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the 
other on the other side ; and his hands were steady 
until the going down of the sun. And Joshua dis- 
comfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the 
sword." Exod. xvii, 11-13. 

From thenceforth there was deadly hatred between 
the two nations, and the Amalekites, as the first of 
heathen nations, were doomed to utter destruction. 
Because their hand was against the Lord, therefore he 
will have war with Amalek "from generation to 
generation." Exod. xvii, 16 ; 1 Sam. xv, 2, 3 ; Num. 
xxiv, 20. 

The Amalekites formed an alliance with the Canaan- 
ites and defeated the Israelites at Hormah. During 



150 Beauty Crowned. 

the period of the judges they were ever in league 
with the enemies of Israel. With the Moabites they 
were defeated by Ehud near Jericho. With the 
Midianites they were defeated by Gideon in the plain 
of Esdraelon. By command of Samuel, Saul made 
war against them, overran their country, overwhelm- 
ingly defeated them, took the " city of Amalek," and 
made their king Agag prisoner. This reduced them 
to " a horde of banditti," but though few in numbers 
they still thirsted for the blood of Israel. A " troop " 
came to Ziklag, pillaged the town, and carried off a 
number of prisoners, among whom were Ahinoam 
and Abigail, wives of David, to whom the town had 
been assigned as a residence by Achish, the Phoeni- 
cian king. David, upon his return home, learned of 
the calamity, pursued, overtook, and smote them, kill- 
ing all save four hundred who rode " upon camels and 
fled." We do not hear of the Amalekites after the 
time of David, for the " Amalekites " spoken of at a 
later period seem to have belonged to another race. 

From this general slaughter of the nation there had 
escaped one Haman, who might have been of royal 
blood and hence was called "the Agagite." "The 
name Haman is probably the same which is found in 
the classical writers under the form of Omanes, and 
which in ancient Persian would have been TJmana 
or Umanish, an exact equivalent of the Greek 
' Eumenes.' Hammedatha is perhaps the same as 



Pkide Before a Fall. 151 

Maddta or Mahadata* an Old Persian name signi- 
fying ' given by (or to) the moon.' " \ 

If Haman is not a natural descendant of the 
Amalekites, he is certainly their spiritual descend- 
ant, and hence a true Agagite and an enemy of the 
Jews. 

This Haman acquired great influence at the Persian 
court, and was at last raised to the office of Prime 
Minister. A distinguished honor was bestowed upon 
him when the king commanded all his servants to 
prostrate themselves before him as the representative 
of his own royalty, and in recognition of his divine 
character. 

When the six conspirators saw the omens which 
designated Darius as king, " it seemed as if the 
heavens conspired with Darius, and hereby inaugu- 
rated him king ; so the five other nobles leaped with 
one accord from their steeds, and bowed down before 
him and owned him for their king." \ 

The Persian king was recognized as a divinity. 
yEschylus, in " The Persians," makes the " Chorus of 
Aged Persians " call : " But do thou, O Earth, and ye 
other rulers of the infernal regions, suffer the illus- 
trious divinity, the god of the Persians, born in Susa, 
to pass from your dwellings, and send him into upper 
air, such an one as never heretofore Persian mold 
covered. Ay, dear was the man, and dear is his 

* Madates of Q. Curtius. f Rawlinson. % Herodotus, in, 86. 



152 Beauty Crowned. 

sepulcher, for dear was the character that it entombs. 
And thou, Aidoneus, that dost send the shades to this 
upper world, set at liberty, Aidoneus, Darius, all 
kingly as he was. Alas ! For as at no time he was 
the destroyer of men by the wasting calamities of 
war, so he was called by his Persians, counselor 
divine ; and counselor divine he was, for he conducted 
the host well. Lord, ancient lord, come, draw nigh, 
appear on the topmost peak of the mount, raising the 
saffron-dyed sandal of thy foot, displaying the crest 
of thy royal tiara. Come forth, O Darius, author of 
no ill : Hoa ! Show thyself, sovereign lord, that thou 
'may est hear the sorrows of our sovereign, strange in 
their nature, and new."* 

When the embassy of the Lacedaemonians came 
into the presence of Xerxes they were excused from 
bowing, for thereby they would have recognised him 
as a god. " And afterward," history relates, " when 
they came to Susa into the king's presence, and the 
guards ordered them to fall down and do obeisance, 
and went so far as to use force to compel them, they 
refused, and said they would never do any such thing, 
even were their heads thrust down to the ground, for 
it was not their custom to worship men, and they had 
not come to Persia for that purpose. So they fought 
off the ceremony." f 

* The Tragedies of sEschylus, Harper's Edition, pp. 83, 84. 
f Herodotus, vii, 136. 



Pride Before a Fall. 153 

Curtius says : " The Persians, not only out of devo- 
tion, but also from motives of policy, reverenced 
their kings as gods, for majesty is the safeguard of 
the empire." * 

Prostrations before officers of rank inferior to the 
king were common. " When they meet each other 
in the streets you may know if the persons meeting 
are of equal rank by the following token : if they are, 
instead of speaking, they kiss each other on the lips. 
In the case where one is a little inferior to the other 
the kiss is given on the cheek ; where the difference 
of rank is great the inferior prostrates himself upon 
the ground. "+ Such prostrations were familiar to 
the Jews, and were sanctified by the example of the 
fathers. Gen. xxiii, 12 ; xlii, 6 ; 2 Sam. xiv, 4 ; 
1 Kings i, 16. 

The prostrations required by Xerxes must have 
been something more than the ordinary courtesies 
due to the office. No special command would have 
been required to enforce such courtesies. It is en- 
tirely consistent with the character of Xerxes to have 
arrogated to himself full divine honors and to have 
required worshipful recognition of his chief repre- 
sentative on the part of all subordinates. 

We are not surprised to learn that when " all the 
king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, 
and reverenced Haman," " Mordecai bowed not, nor 
* Herodotus, viii. 5, 11. f Ibid., i, 134. 




154: Beauty Crowned. 

did him reverence." It was not from lack of loyalty 
to the king's government and the king's person. He 
had already saved the life of his royal master and 
was doubtless a faithful servant. It was not from 
lack of respect for the office 
and for the officer as such. 
Nehemiah and Ezra, both ear- 
nest Jews, found no difficulty 

Oriental Prostration. • ,\ , i • \ 

in serving the great king, and 
bowed themselves before him as did the Persians. 
It was not because he did not recognize the king's 
command as imperative. He knew that to disobey 
it would peril his life. None but the weightiest 
reasons could have led him to disobedience. He was 
called upon to render to a human being that worship 
which was due to Gcd alone, and to reverence him 
whom, as an Agagite, God had cursed. 

Haman was so proud in the enjoyment of his 
newly-acquired honors that for some time he did 
not notice the disobedience of Mordecai. His atten- 
tion is probably first called to it by his servants, who 
have doubtless once and again spoken to the Jew 
concerning his disregard of the royal will. Mordecai 
has told them that his religion prevents this act of 
worship. 

The Talmud has the following account: "The 
servants of the king's gate said to Mordecai, ' Why 
wilt thou refuse to bow before Haman, transgressing 



Pride Before a Fall. 155 

thus the wishes of the king ? Do we not bow before 
him?' 

" ' Ye are foolish,' answered Mordecai ; ' aye, want- 
ing in reason. Listen to me. Shall a mortal, who 
must return to dust, be glorified ? Shall I bow down 
before one born of woman, whose days are short? 
When he is small he cries and weeps as a child ; 
when he grows older sorrow and sighing are his 
portion ; his days are full of wrath and anger, and 
at the end he returns to dust. Shall I bow to one 
like him % No, I prostrate myself before the Eter- 
nal God, who lives forever; who dwells in heaven 
and bears the world in the hollow of his hand. His 
word changes sunlight to darkness, his command 
illumines the deepest gloom. His wisdom made 
the world, he placed the boundaries of the mighty 
sea ; the waters are his, the sweet and the salt ; 
to the struggling waves he says, ' Be still ; thus far 
shalt thou come, no further, that the earth may re- 
main dry for my people.' To him, the great Crea- 
tor and Ruler of the Universe, and to no other will 
I bow." * 

Yashti dared the wrath of the king and was di- 
vorced. Daniel disobeyed a similar command and 
was cast into the den of lions. The three Hebrews 
disobeyed and were cast into the burning furnace. 
The servants of the king, having reported the disobe- 

*Polauo, Selections from the Talmud, pp. 191, 192. 



156 Beauty Crowned. 

dience of Mordecai to Hainan, wait to see if his excuse 
will be accepted as sufficient. To be sure the Lace- 
daemonian embassadors were excused for the same 
reason which Mordecai has urged, but the circum- 
stances in many respects w T ere quite different. What 
will be done to Mordecai the Jew ? 



Superstition and Cruelty. 157 



CHAPTER X. 

SUPERSTITION AND CRUELTY, HAND IN HAND. 

Then was Haman full of wrath. — Esther iii, 5. 
Haman sought to destroy all the Jews. — Esther iii, 6. 
Let it be written that they may be destroyed. — Esther iii, 9. 
And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shuslian 
was perplexed. — Esther iii, 15. 

When Haman was informed of the contumacy of 
Mordecai he was " full of wrath." He would not 
allow the fact of his Jewish nationality and religion 
to be an excuse for such an affront. Mordecai, indeed, 
was beneath his notice, and he scorned to lay hands 
on him alone, but he "sought to destroy all the Jews 
that were throughout the whole kingdom." 

History furnishes illustrious examples of such 
wholesale massacre. The Scythians had overrun the 
richest provinces of Asia and held possession of them 
for some years, till "at length Cyaxares and the 
Medes invited the greater part of them to a banquet, 
and made them drunk with wine, after which they 
were all massacred." * "When the seven conspirators 
assassinated Pseudo-Smerdis, the Persians began the 
slaughter of the magi, and " such was their fury, 



158 Beauty Crowned. 

that, unless night had closed in, not a single ma- 
gus would have been left alive." * Mithridates, the 
Parthian king, "issued orders to all the governors 
and cities dependent on him to put to death on one 
and the same day all Italians residing within their 
bounds, whether free or slaves, without distinction of 
sex or age, and on no account, under severe penalties, 
to aid any of the proscribed to escape ; to cast forth 
the corpses of the slain as a prey to the birds ; to 
confiscate their property, and to hand over one half of 
it to the murderers and the other half to the king. 
The horrible orders were — excepting in a few dis- 
tricts, such as the island of Cos — punctually executed, 
and eighty, or, according to other accounts, one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand — if not innocent, at least de- 
fenseless, men, women, and children were slaughtered 
in cold blood in one day in Asia Minor."f 

Nothing less than the slaughter of the Jewish 
nation can expiate the insult offered to the Prime 
Minister of the empire, soothe his offended pride, and 
sate his vengeance. He determines upon this bloody 
course and makes his preparations. 

He can, however, attempt nothing unless it first 
receive the sanction of his religion. Cruelty and su- 
perstition are ever inseparably united. 

The religion of the Persians as taught by Zoroaster 
in the most ancient passages of the Zend-Avesta is 

* Herod., iii, 79. f Mommsen, History of Rome, vol. iii, p. 355. 



Superstition and Ckuelty. 159 

one of the purest of ancient faiths, and in its earliest 
portions dates from about twelve hundred years before 
Christ. 

It is most intimately connected with the religion 
of Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament. 
The magi are mentioned in the Bible, in which the 
Persians are not classified w T ith idolaters. Cyrus is 
called " the anointed of the Lord." 

The sacred books of this old religion have but lately 
been made accessible in modern tongues. The early 
religion was strictly monotheistic. Ahuramazda was 
the creator of all things, munificent, righteous, wise, 
brilliant, glorious, eternal, the essence of truth, faith- 
ful, " having his own light," " originator of all the 
best things of the spirit of nature, of righteousness, 
of the luminaries, and the self-shining brightness 
which is in the luminaries," giver of immortality, 
re warder of good, and punisher of evil. 

From this primitive monotheism was developed a 
dualism of good and bad spirits — God and the devil, 
each independent and warring against the other. The 
Zoroastrian believed in " the two-fold nature of man 
as body and soul, the two-fold origin of knowledge as 
heavenly and earthly, human responsibility, the value 
of prayer, angelic mediatorship, heaven and hell, 
immortality, a general judgment, future rewards and 
punishments according to the works, the resurrection 
of the body, the final overthrow of evil, and the reno- 



160 Beauty Crowned. 

vation of all things." The good at death enter " the 
house of Song," the bad are sent to "eternal 
glooms." 

The modern Parsi worships facing some luminous 
object, as best symbolizing the divine presence. 
His creed is, pure thoughts, pure words, and pure 
deeds. 

Such a religion, in its purity, would not lead the 
Jewish exile far astray. It would strengthen in him 
his attachment to strict monotheism and his abhor- 
rence of idolatry, while it would teach a pure moral- 
ity and religious doctrines fundamentally correct. 
The spirit of evil, recognized, in its later development, 
as independent in origin, would not attract his wor- 
ship, but would drive him closer to the good Spirit. 

But he would meet with two other religions. The 
religion of the ancient Chaldeans was a system of 
nature worship highly sacerdotal in type. It was the 
religion of the Accadians. The priests claimed su- 
pernatural powers. 

"They explained omens, expounded dreams, and 
by means of certain mysterious manipulations of the 
barsom, or bundle of twigs, arrived at a knowledge of 
future events, which they communicated to the pious 
inquirer. With such pretensions, it was natural that 
the caste should assume a lofty air, a stately dress, and 
an entourage of ceremonial magnificence. Clad in 
white robes, and bearing upon their heads tall felt caps, 



Superstition and Cruelty. 161 

with long lappets at the sides, which concealed the 
jaw and even the lips, each with his barsom in his 
hand, they marched in procession to their pyraetheia, 
or fire-altars, and standing around them performed 
for an hour at a time their magical incantations. The 
credulous multitude, impressed by sights of this kind, 
and imposed on by the claims to supernatural power 
which the magi advanced, paid them a willing hom- 
age ; and when the Arian tribes, pressing westward, 
came into contact with the races professing the 
Magian religion, they found a sacerdotal caste all- 
powerful in most of the Scythic nations. v * 

The classic historian says : " Scythia has an abun- 
dance of soothsayers, who foretell the future by 
means of a number of willow-wands. A large bundle 
of these rods is brought and laid on the ground. The 
soothsayer unties the bundle, and places each wand 
by itself, at the same time uttering his prophecy ; 
then, while he is still speaking, he gathers the rods 
together again, and makes them up once more into a 
bundle." f 

These wands of different lengths — consisting of 
some odd number — were always carried by the Magus. 
The baneful influence of the magi was felt by Cam- 
byses; they became dominant and aggressive under 
Pseudo-Smerdis ; they were massacred when the gov- 

* Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii, pp. 348, 349. 
f Herodotus, iv, 67. 
11 



162 Beauty Ckowned. 

eminent was seized by Darius Hystapis; and their re- 
ligion greatly modified pure Zoroastrianism, and was 
•an influential element in the time of Xerxes. 

Ezekiel speaks of divination by means of rods or 
arrows. Ezek. xxi, 21. The arrows of fate are repre- 
sented on Babylonian cylinders as held in the hand of 
Marduk or Ishtar, the divinities of Jupiter and Yenus, 
the most favorable deities, according to the Magians. 
A tablet in the British Museum shows a method of 
divination by the magic throwing of dice.* 

Magical rites were multiplied. Purifications, mys- 
teries, magic knots, magic numbers, incantations, ex- 
orcisms, sacred names and texts, talismans, amulets, 
charms, sorceries, witchcraft, magic spells, magic po- 
tions, imprecations, mysterious rites, powerful secrets 
— these were all important. Fire was worshiped, 
hymns were chanted, and prayers were offered. 
There were gods of the sea, the sky, and the storm. 
The sun and moon were gods, and there were many 
planetary divinities. 

Another religion was the Semitic cult of Assyria 
and Babylonia, into which this elemental system was 
absorbed. The gods of Assyria were more clearly 
marked and possessed nobler attributes. Prayers and 
hymns showed a truer spirit of worship. But there 
were human sacrifices and unclean rites. Bel, Mer- 
odach, Eimmin, ISTebo, Nergal, Ishtar, and Assur 

* Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, p. 238. 



Superstition and Cruelty. 163 

were important gods. Planetary worship continued, 
and kings were zealous in extending their religion 
over conquered countries. 

Many of the moral precepts were pure. Temples 
of worship were multiplied, and books of worship, of 
magic, of prayer, of praise, and of explanations were 
prepared. Legends concerning the creation, the 
flood, and other biblical events were current. The 
devotees of this religion believed in omens and 
dreams, and lucky and unlucky days. They prayed 
for the forgiveness of sins, sacrificed in high places, 
and expected future retributions. The good, they 
believed, went to "a place of delights,'' "the land of 
the silver sky." They had a learned priesthood, 
imposing ceremonies, brilliant services, magnificent 
temples, and many and great idols. There were 
many valuable fragments of truth which remained. 

Xerxes found at Callatebus a plane tree which was 
so beautiful that he presented it with golden orna- 
ments and placed it under the care of one of the im- 
mortals. Ten daintily caparisoned Nisaean horses 
were in the army of Xerxes ; also, " the holy chariot 
of Jupiter, drawn by eight milk-white steeds, with 
the charioteer on foot behind them holding the reins; 
for no mortal is ever allowed to mount into the car." 
At the Pergamus of Priam Xerxes made an offering 
of a thousand oxen to Minerva while the Magians 
poured out libations to the heroes slain at Troy. The 



164 Beauty Crowned. 

Strymon was propitiated by sacrificing white horses ; 
and at " The Nine Ways " nine youths and nine 
maidens were buried alive.* 

Strabo says that at the sacrifice to a stream " the 
flesh of the victim is then placed on myrtle or laurel 
branches ; the magi touch it with slender twigs, and 
make incantations, pouring oil mixed with milk and 
honey, not into the fire, nor into the water, but upon 
the earth/'f 

Herodotus had heard that Amestris, the wife of 
Xerxes, " in her old age buried alive seven pairs of 
Persian youths, sons of illustrious men, as a thank- 
offering to the god who is supposed to dwell under- 
neath the earth." The Persians sacrificed the first 
Greek prisoner. In the midst of the storm which 
destroyed many Persian ships off Cape Sepias, the 
magi offered victims to the winds and charmed them 
with the help of conjurers, while at the same time 
they sacrificed to Thetis and the Nereids, to whom 
they had heard the Sepian promontory was sacred.J 

These are the three religious systems which met in 
Susa. At this time each had received something 
from the others, so that their elements were mingled 
and modified, and neither could stand out entirely 
separate and distinct. Hainan appealed to the lowest 
form of religious belief — the elemental worship. 

* Herodotus, vii, 31, 39, 43, 114. f Strabo. 

% Herodotus, vii, 114, 191. 



Superstition and Cruelty. 165 

Among the ancients great attention was paid to 
lucky and unlucky days. The whole year was divided 
into lucky and unlucky days, and cuneiform tablets 
have been recovered on which such days are cata- 
logued. Besides this, special days must be selected 
for every important enterprise. Hainan could not 
wreak his vengeance on the Jewish nation for a Jewish 
insult without first having selected a propitious day 
for the enterprise. 

This day might have been selected by appealing to 
the stars, by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial vic- 
tims, by watching the flight of birds, by casting lots, 
and by other means. Hainan chose to cast lots. 

The lot was not unknown to the Jews. With them 
it was an appeal to God without bias or passion. The 
ancients sometimes represent the gods themselves as 
resorting to divination by the lot. By lot the tribes 
of Israel were located in Palestine, levitical cities as- 
signed, and after their return from the exile settle- 
ments in their homesteads selected. By lot they dis- 
posed of prisoners of war and discovered criminals. 
The sailors cast lots and found Jonah to be the of- 
fender to be surrendered to appease the sea. Election 
to important offices and assignment to official duties 
were determined by lot. In like manner the scape- 
goat was selected. The Urim, the Thummim, and the 
Ephod were used in connection with the lot. The 
soldiers cast the lot for the possession of the seamless 



166 Beauty Crowned. 

robe of Christ. An apostle was selected by lot to 
supply the place of Judas. Elections by lot prevailed 
in the Church as late as the seventh century. 

It was in the month Nisan — the former Hebrew 
name was Abib — according to the Babylonian method 
of reckoning, the first month of the year, correspond- 
ing with the latter part of March and the early part 
of April. Haman sent for one or more Magian 
priests, who came into his presence clothed in splendid 
vestments and bearing the insignia of their priestly 
functions. First, the days of the month were tried, 
and the thirteenth was found to be the most pro- 
pitious; then the months of the year, and the twelfth 
month, or Adar, was selected. There was an interval 
of about eleven months before the massacre. It 
might give the Jews time to prepare to defend them- 
selves, but Haman was a religious man and had ap- 
pealed to the lot and to the lot he must go. What- 
ever the danger he must abide by the decision. 

His plans having been formed and a propitious day 
having been selected, lie will have little trouble in 
gaining the consent of the king to issue a royal decree 
commanding the slaughter. 

His proposal to the king is very subtilly calculated. 
He represents the Jews as dwelling alone, and hence 
open to suspicion, and as having laws of their own, 
and hence disloyal to the royal authority. " There is 
a certain people," said he, " scattered abroad, and dis- 



Superstition and Cruelty. 167 

persed among the people in all the provinces of thy 
kingdom ; and their laws are diverse from all people, 
neither keep they the king's laws : therefore it is not 
for the king's profit to suffer them." Esther iii, 8. 

There was some truth mixed with this falsehood. 
This, however, rendered the falsehood more danger- 
ous. ' "So far as regarded religion, it was true that 
the Jews had laws diverse from all people, neither 
kept they the king's laws on this head ; but this did 
not interfere with their civil allegiance, and their 
enemies belied and calumniated them when they 
insinuated that they did not yield a thankful obedi- 
ance to the laws of the empire in secular mat- 
ters." * The same charge has been the apology for 
many of the great religious persecutions which dis- 
grace the pages of history and the annals of the 
Church. 

" If it please the king, let it be written that they 
may be destroyed." But the wholesale slaughter of 
one of the nations of the empire would unfavorably 
affect the amount of the royal revenues. Hence 
Hainan calls attention to the Oriental custom of con- 
fiscating the property of executed criminals, and 
pledges himself that he will save from the spoils ten 
thousand talents of silver and pay it over to the king's 
financiers to be turned into the treasury. This sum 
of money would ecpal from ten millions to more than 

* McCrie. 



168 Beauty Crowned. 

twenty millions of dollars, according as we estimate 
by the civil or by the Mosaic shekel. Hainan may 
have expected to pay this at once from his own pri- 
vate resources and to make all that he could out of 
the spoils of the massacre. Thus the proposal ap- 
pealed strongly to the cupidity of both the king and 
his vizier. 

The king, with Oriental courtesy, while appearing 
to reject, accepts the bribe and gives to Hainan his 
signet ring to authenticate any document which he 
wishes to prepare. 

The use of the seal belonged to remote antiq- 
uity. No document in the East is regarded as au- 
thentic unless sealed. In Egypt engraved stones were 
pierced through lengthwise and hung by a string 
or chain about the neck or arm, or set in rings to be 
worn on the finger. An ancient form was the 
scarabaeus, made of stone or blue pottery or porcelain, 
with an inscription or device on the flat side. The 
Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians used cylinder- 
seals of precious stone, or terra-cotta, which they 
rolled over the document to be sealed. Among the 
two latter nations the document was frequently of 
clay, which was sealed while soft and afterward 
baked or dried. Sometimes the seal consisted of a 
lump of clay which was impressed with the seal 
and attached to the document by a string. Doors 
of tombs were closed and sealed. The importance 



Superstition and Cruelty. 



169 



of sealing is evident from its metaphorical use in 
the Bible. 







(Si 1 










Seal Rings. 

The ring-seal came into use later. " It consisted of 
a ring, to one side of which a seal was attached, the 
seal being sometimes stationary, with the inscription 
upon the outer side only ; at other times it was so 
constructed as to revolve upon its axis, and possessed 
several inscriptions, which might be used at the 
option of the wearer. Sometimes the seal was a flat 
oval disk having inscriptions upon the two opposite 
surfaces, at other times it was in the form of a cube 
with inscriptions upon the four sides." * 

The custom of using the seal was introduced into 
Greece and Rome from the East. The importance of 
the signet-ring illustrates many passages of Scripture. 
■ The seals of Osirtasen I., of Sabaco, and of Cheops, 
the builder of the Great Pyramid, have been recov- 
ered ; also the seal which it is thought Pharaoh gave 
to Joseph, and those of Sennacherib and Darius 
Hystaspis. 

The seal was a symbol of authority, and was part- 
ed with only upon extraordinary occasions. It was 

* The Lowell Hebrew Club, The Book of Esther, p. 141. 



170 Beauty Crowned. 

used in the place of the sign manual and gave the 
same validity to documents. When Xerxes gave to 
Hainan his seal he delegated to him supreme 
authority. 

When Cyrus called for volunteers to bring to him 
Oroetes, dead or alive, thirty of the chief Persians 
offered themselves for the work. Lots were cast, and 
Bagaeus was selected to execute the king's wishes. 
" Then Bagaeus caused many letters to be written on 
divers matters, and sealed them all with the king's 
signet ; after which he took the letters with him and 
departed for Sardis. On his arrival he was shown 
into the presence of Oroetes, when he uncovered the 
letters one by one, and giving them to the king's 
secretary — every satrap has with him a king's sec- 
retary — commanded him to read their contents. 
Herein his design was to try the fidelity of the body- 
guard, and see if they would be likely to fall away 
from Oroetes. When, therefore, he saw that they 
showed ,'the letters all due respect, and even more 
highly reverenced their contents, he gave the secre- 
tary a paper on which was written, ' Persians, King 
Darius forbids you to guard Oroetes.' The soldiers 
at these words laid aside their spears. So Bagaeus, 
finding that they obeyed his mandate, took courage, 
and gave into the secretary's hands the last letter, 
wherein it was written, ' King Darius commands the 
Persians who are in Sardis to kill Oroetes. ' Then 



Superstition and Cruelty. 171 

the guards drew their swords and slew him upon 
the spot." * 

Haman, armed with supreme authority, hastened 
his preparations. The king's scribes were called, 
and at Haman's dictation wrote the edict of exter- 
mination addressed to the various officers of the prov- 
inces and sealed with the king's seal. 

" The Jews' enemy " caused the edict to be written 
in the king's name, thereby rendering it binding and 
irrevocable. " And the letters were sent by posts 
into all the king's provinces." 

In so mighty an empire rapidity of communication 
was necessary that the king might be speedily in- 
formed concerning the condition of affairs in all its 
provinces, and that his edicts might be carried as 
quickly as possible to the utmost limits of the realm. 
There were then no roads in western Asia ; they may 
scarcely be said to exist at the present day. They 
are only routes of travel, with no improvements save 
where they cross the mountains. 

In mountainous countries fleet footmen were em- 
ployed as runners to carry royal dispatches. There is 
the record of a journey from Tyre to Jerusalem which 
was accomplished in twenty-four hours. The dis- 
tance is one hundred miles. Even one hundred and 
fifty miles have been accomplished in the same time. 
Saul had. an organized body of footmen. Horses, 
* Herodotus, iii, 12V, 128. 



172 - Beauty Crowned. 

camels, and other swift beasts were employed in the 
less mountainous regions. 

The Persian postal system was established by Cyrus 
the Great. It was greatly improved by Darius, and 
afterward by Xerxes. 

"Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian 
messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention ; 
and this is the method of it. Along the whole line 
of road there are men (they say) stationed, with horses, 
in number equal to the number of days which the 
journey takes, allowing a man and horse to each day ; 
and these men will not be hindered from accomplish- 
ing at their best speed the distance which they have 
to go, either by snow or rain, or heat, or by the dark- 
ness of night. The first rider delivers his dispatch to 
the second, and the second passes it to the third ; and 
so it is borne from hand to hand along the whole 
line, like the light in the torch-race which the Greeks 
celebrated to Vulcan." * 

The post-houses were doubtless still more frequent 
— at such distances apart that a horse could gallop from 
one to the next at full speed. Each being provided 
with several relays of horses and several couriers, the 
dispatch was forwarded at utmost speed. 

Inns were to be found at every station, bridges and 
fords crossed the streams, and guard-houses with 
bodies of soldiery protected the messengers from rob- 

* Herodotus, viii, 98. 



Superstition and Cruelty. 173 

bery or delays from the attacks of brigands. Men 
could be pressed into the service in cases of necessity, 
to hasten the dispatches or to protect the king's mes- 
sengers. 

" News of the death of Philotus, and orders for the 
execution of Parmenio, his father, were carried on 
dromedaries from near Herat to Ecbatana, a distance 
of eight hundred and fifty miles, in eleven days." * 

This postal system was only for the king's business. 
The main postal routes in the reign of Xerxes w T ere 
the route from Susa to Sardis, that from Susa to 
Babylon, and a branch to Ecbatana. There were less 
important postal-roads to all parts of the empire. 

The materials used for writing in ancient times 
were various. Public inscriptions and brief records 
were placed upon stone, metallic, or clay surfaces. 
Clay cylinders, papyrus rolls, waxed tablets, and 
parchment were often used for books. Parchment 
was employed in western Asia for all missive docu- 
ments. Sometimes preparations were made from 
box-wood, palm-leaves, and linen. 

Besides the cuneiform character adapted to the 
chisel, there probably existed in Persia an alphabet 
better adapted to the pen. " The pen was usually of 
reed, with a metallic pointed style for wax, and still 
harder tools for stone or plaster or metal ; and the 
prevalent ink was a mixture of gall and lampblack." 

* Strabo, xv, ii, 10. 



174 Beauty Ckowned. 

The following copy of an ancient letter will be 
interesting: "Areus, king of the Lacedaemonians, to 
Onias, sendeth greeting. We have met with a cer- 
tain writing whereby we have discovered that both 
the Jews and Lacedaemonians are of one stock, and 
are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is 
but just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, 
should send to us about any of your concerns as you 
please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem 
your concerns as our own, and will look upon our 
concerns as in common w r ith yours. Demoteles, who 
brings you this letter, will bring your answer back 
to us." This letter is foursquare ; and the seal is an 
eagle, with a dragon in its claws.* 

The king's scribes soon completed copies of the 
bloody edict in all the languages of the principal na- 
tions of the kingdom — "to destroy, to kill, and to 
cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little 
children and women, in one day, even upon the thir- 
teenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month 
Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey." The 
scribe certified the writing in the words : " The copy 
of the writing, for a commandment to be given in 
every province, was published unto all people, that 
they should be ready against that day." 

It was entirely consistent with the custom of the 
Persians and other ancient nations to put to death 

* The Lowell Hebrew Club, The Book of Esther, pp. 121, 122. 



Superstition and Cruelty. 175 

not only the criminal himself, but also his wife and 
children.* 

The couriers received the edict, published it in 
Susa, and sped in every direction into all the prov- 
inces of the empire " pressed on by the command of 
the king." 

Why this so great haste in publishing the edict 
when it would be eleven months before the day 
selected by lot for the slaughter ? The Jews would 
take warning and flee from the kingdom. What 
cared Haman % He would be well rid of the hated 
race, and he could see to it that they carried little of 
their property with them in their flight. 

But the people of " Shushan the palace " and of 
Susa, the city, were alarmed. The great majority of 
them were doubtless friendly to the Jews. And 
then, too, they feared for their own safety. If 
Xerxes has ordered the massacre of the Jewish 
nation this year, what nation will be exterminated 
next year? 

" And the king and Haman sat down to drink ; but 
the city Shushan was perplexed." 

* Herodotus, iii, 119. 



176 Beauty Crowned. 



CHAPTER XL 

SUSPENSE, AGONY, RESOLUTION. 

" Mordecai rent his clothes." — Esther iv, 1. 

" There was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and 
weeping and wailing." — Esther iv, 3. 

" Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for sicch a 
time as this? " — Esther iv, 14. 

" Fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or 
day: ... if I perish, I perish." — Esther iv, 16. 

The decree of the king will be executed. The 
annihilation of the Jewish nation is certain. Mon- 
archs of even later times have shown themselves 
equal to any atrocity. Tamerlane, in his march against 
Delhi, massacred one hundred thousand captives, and 
having stormed Bagdad, piled ninety thousand corpses 
in public places as a terror to his enemies. He put 
to death all the inhabitants of Ispahan, except her 
artists and scholars. Seventy thousand heads were 
piled up in the form of towers. At Sebsewar two 
thousand persons were piled up alive, their heads 
outward and their bodies built up with mortar. The 
Janizaries in Constantinople were butchered to the 
number of twenty-five thousand. This was in 1826. 
In 1821 the Turks, by slaughter and enslavement, 
destroyed more than one hundred thousand of the 



Suspense, Agony, Resolution. 177 

Christian population of Scio. The Koords butchered 

ten thousand of the Nestorians in 1843. It was but in 

the year 1861 that the Turks and Druses slaughtered 

the Christians of Mt. Lebanon — " eleven thousand 

Christians massacred ; one hundred thousand sufferers 

by the civil war ; twenty thousand desolate widows 

and orphans ; three thousand Christian habitations 

burned ; and property to the value of ten millions of 

dollars (gold) destroyed." .Not only is the edict of 

Xerxes itself credible, but it is also certain that such 

an edict would have been executed. 

No wonder that " when Mordecai perceived all 

that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on 

sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of 

the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry." If 

was not because of his fear of personal harm. If the 

royal edict had devoted himself alone to death, he 

could have received it with the silence, the equanimity, 

and the courage of a Daniel. Nor was it because of 

the doom which hung over his royal relative, the 

beautiful queen. That, even, would not have called 

forth such violent expressions of grief. But the 

whole Jewish nation was doomed. And another 

consideration which caused this to weigh more heavily 

was the fact that he himself was instrumental in 

bringing this calamity upon his people. Not that 

he repented because of what he had done. He had 

counted the cost of disobedience, and would stand his 
12 . * 



178 Beauty Crowned. 

ground. But it must have been a most painful re- 
flection for him to know that he had been the occa- 
sion of this explosion of the Satanic rage of the Jews' 
enemy. 

The expression of his grief was in the true Oriental 
spirit. He rent his clothes, put on sackcloth, sprin- 
kled ashes upon his person, went out into the streets 
of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry. 
This was Jewish ; it was also Persian, and Oriental. 

"At Susa, on the arrival of the first message, 
which said that Xerxes was master of Athens, such 
was the delight of the Persians who had remained be- 
hind, that they forthwith «strewed all the streets with 
myrtle boughs, and burnt incense, and fell to feasting 
and merriment. In like manner, when the second 
message reached them, so sore was their dismay that 
they all with one accord rent their garments, and 
cried aloud, and wept and wailed without stint." * 

" When the horse reached the camp, Mardonius 
and all the Persian army made great lamentation for 
Masistius. They shaved off all the hair from their 
own heads, and cut the manes from their war-horses 
and their sumpter-beasts, while they vented their 
grief in such loud cries that all Bceotia resounded 
with the clamor, because they had lost the man who, 
next to Mardonius, was held in the greatest esteem, 
both by the king and by the Persians generally." f 

* Herodotus, viii, 99. f Ibid., ix, 24. 



Suspense, Agony, Resolution. 179 

When the Persians saw Cambyses at the approach 
of death bewail his misfortunes, they <k rent the 
garments that they had on, and uttered lamentable 
cries." * ^Eschylus in " The Persians " does not 
exaggerate this grief and its expression, f The 
Egyptians were equally violent in expressions of 
mourning. £ 

Esau, like * Mordecai, " cried with a great and ex- 
ceeding bitter cry." Gen. xxvii, 34. Daniel sought 
the Lord, clothed in sackcloth and covered with ashes. 
Dan. ix, 3. All the scriptural modes of expressing 
grief and mourning are to be found in Job ii, 12, and 
elsewhere. 

Thus Mordecai went forth into the streets of the 
city, in the intense anguish of his soul, and his pierc- 
ing cries ceased not to weary the very heavens. The 
loud wailing called many from their dwellings, and 
they beheld the object of pity, clothed with a coarse 
cloth of hair and covered with ashes, passing slowly 
along the streets, smiting upon his breast or raising 
his hands to heaven and ever giving utterance to the 
same piercing cries. As the news of the bloody 
decree spread, the Jews everywhere joined in the 
wail of grief, and clothed themselves in the garb of 
mourning. And with the speed of the king's mes- 

* Herodotus, iii, 66. Comp. iii, 64 ; vii, 45. 

f^Eschylus, The Persians, 251-285; 510-585; 702-1045. 

\ Herodotus, ii, 85. 



180 Beauty Crowned. 

sengers it extended throughout the provinces of the 
empire. Ashes were sprinkled upon the ground to 
become the bed of those whose grief was intense. 

" There was great mourning among the Jews, and 
fasting, and weeping, and wailing : and many lay in 
sackcloth and ashes."* 

Mordecai, in his aimless wandering or with some un- 
defined purpose, approaches the king's gate, but is 
arrested by the guard, " for none might enter into 
the king's gate clothed with sackcloth." 

" It was contrary to every established rule, and an 
offense highly punishable, for any one to appear 
within the precincts of the palace of the Persian 
kings in the dress or with the look of a mourner. 
There must be nothing seen there to remind the 
sovereign that trouble and suffering are experienced 
by mortals. With every luxury to gratify his pam- 
pered appetite, with external splendor to please his 
eye, and sweet music to soothe his ear, and the flat- 
tery of courtiers to make him regard himself as some- 
thing more than mortal, he passed his life in seclusion 
from all sights and sounds of distress and woe." f 

" But thus to keep out the badges of sorrow, unless 
they could withal have kept out the causes of sorrow, 
to forbid sackcloth to enter, unless they could have 
forbidden sickness and trouble and death to enter, 
was jest." % 

* Comp. Isaiah lviii, 5 ; Jonah iii, 6. f Davidson. \ Henry. 



Suspense, Agony, Kesolution. 181 

The only words joyful to the ear of the monarch 
would have been, " Let the king live forever." 
There are scriptural references to this law of the 
palace. Gen. 1, 4: ; E"eh. ii, 1. How little the king 
knows of the sorrow of his subject ! how little the 
rich know of the troubles of the poor ! 

The servants of Esther seem to have learned her 
relation to Mordecai, though they were not yet in- 
formed of his nationality. They had observed his 
profound grief, and reported it to the queen. His 
royal cousin fell into convulsive anguish at the sad 
news brought by her servants, but recovering, in a 
measure, her composure, sent garments to induce him 
to lay aside his sackcloth, enter the king's gate, and 
relate to her the cause of his poignant grief. But 
what was her surprise when she was told that Mor- 
decai failed to comply with a request which, coming 
from the queen, should have been his law ! The cir- 
cumstances must have been most extraordinary which 
would have justified such a course. Some awful 
calamity must be impending. 

Esther sends for her most trusted servant, Hatach, 
and commissions him to go to Mordecai and learn the 
nature of the trouble. Hatach finds him in the street 
in front of the gate of the palace. Mordecai reveals 
to him the whole history — the offense, the sum of 
money which Haman promised to pay into the treas- 
ury as the price of blood, the edict of slaughter, the 



182 Beauty Crowned. 

day selected for its execution, and its publication 
throughout all the provinces of the empire by the 
king's messengers. He gives him also a copy of the 
decree, that the queen may know the full enormity 
of its wickedness. In conclusion, he charges him to 
enjoin upon the queen the duty of going to the king 
and supplicating him to spare her people. 

This is a dangerous mission. She must reveal her- 
self as one of the people who have been condemned 
to death. She must oppose Hainan, the king's most 
powerful favorite. She must ask him to do some- 
thing that is impossible — change a law of the Medes 
and Persians. 

More obvious objections to the course proposed 
come to her mind. She has reason to doubt whether 
she is any longer the king's favorite. His affections 
seem to have been transferred to another. At least 
she has not been called to come to the king's apart- 
ments for thirty days.* He would, doubtless, not 
be in a proper temper to listen to her petition, much 
less to give a favorable response. An obstacle more 
formidable still presented itself. "All the king's 
servants and the people of the king's provinces do 
know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall 
come unto the king into the inner court, who is not 
called, there is one law of his to put him to death, 
except such to whom the king shall hold out the 
* Herodotus, iii, 69. 



Suspense, A&ony, Resolution. 183 

golden scepter, that he may live." She cannot hope 
that the king will hold out the golden SGepter to her, 
especially if he has transferred his affections to a more 
favored wife. 

When Hatach presents the urgent request of Mor- 
decai to Esther, she can only command his return to 
her cousin to inform him of obstacles in the way 
which seem to her to be absolutely insurmountable — 
her want of influence with the king, and the difficulty 
of access to his presence. 

Among the resolutions adopted by the seven con- 
spirators who placed Darius upon the throne of Persia 
was this : " It was to be free to each, whenever he 
pleased, to enter the palace unannounced, unless the 
king were in the company of one of his wives." 

" Of the seven Persians who rose up against the 
Magus, one, Intaphernes, lost his life very shortly 
after the outbreak for an act of insolence. He wished 
to enter the palace and transact a certain business 
with the king. Now the law was that all those who 
had taken part in the rising against the Magus might 
enter unannounced into the king's presence, unless 
he happened to be in private with his wife. So 
Intaphernes would not have any one announce him, 
but, as he belonged to the seven, claimed it as his 
right to go in. The door-keeper, however, and chief 
usher forbade his entrance, since the king, they said, 
was with his wife. But Intaphernes thought they 



184 Beauty Crowned. 

told lies ; so, drawing his scymitar, he cut off their 
noses and their ears, and, hanging them on the bridle 
of his horse, put the bridle round their necks, and so 
let them go." 

Intaphernes, with all his family and all his rela- 
tives, save his wife and her brother and eldest son, 
was slain.* 

Great ceremony was required in all that pertained 
to the court. When a person was ushered into the 
royal presence, he must not step on the royal carpet, 
he must keep his hands concealed in his sleeves, and 
he must prostrate himself before the king. It was a 
capital crime to sit on the royal throne, and a high 
offense to wear the clothing which the king had 
cast off. ^Z 

" Etiquette was almost as severe" on the monarch 
himself as on his subjects. He was required to live 
chiefly in seclusion ; to eat his meals, for the most 
part, alone ; never to go on foot beyond the palace 
walls ; never to revoke an order once given, however 
much he might regret it ; never to draw back from a 
promise, whatever ill results he might anticipate from 
its performance. To maintain the quasi-divine char- 
acter attached to him it was necessary that he should 
seem infallible, immutable, and wholly free from the 
weakness of repentance." f 

* Herodotus, iii, 84, 118, 119; comp. Josephus, Antiquities, xi, 6, 3. 
f Rawlinson. 



Suspense, Agony, Resolution. 185 

The scepter may have been originally a simple 
staff on which to lean, or a shepherd's crook. Among 
nations to whom the agricultural life was the earliest 
known we do not find the symbolic shepherd's staff. 
According to Diodorus Sicuius the scepter of the 
Egyptian kings bore the shape of a plow. Saul car- 
ried his javelin as a symbol of power. On the monu- 
ments the king is always represented with scepter in 
hand. To lean the scepter toward a person was the 
sign of royal favor ; and to kiss or touch its top was 
the sign of submission. 

When Hatach presents the message from the 
queen, reciting to Mordecai the difficulties and dan- 
gers in the way of obedience to his request, he finds 
him determined, and ready with new arguments. 
Mordecai looks to the palace for sympathy, and 
knows that there is an intercessor at court. God's 
providence may be active in behalf of the Jews, but 
it needs Mordecai's faith, and Esthers courage. 

First of all, Mordecai reminds her of her own 
personal peril. Her high position will be no protec- 
tion. Her nationality will certainly become known, 
and there would be found more than one in the 
king's palace who, from hate or envy or jealousy, 
would delight to strike so shining a mark. And 
then again, God will certainly save a remnant of his 
people. " Then shall there enlargement and deliver- 
ance arise to the Jews." Other instruments will be 



186 Beauty Crowned. 

found if they fail, but for her disobedience to the 
divine call she shall not escape. These were stout 
words to speak to a Persian queen, but the necessity 
was imperative. The Jews who perform their duty 
will not be destroyed. "We have this noble and 
clearly heroic faith of Mordecai, which sees the 
future deliverance, even amid the most immediate 
and imminent danger." * Only the recreant will 
suffer. 

The all-convincing argument was still to be given. 
Esther's history had been remarkable — an orphan in 
exile, by a wonderful train of providential circum- 
stances raised to the throne of the mightiest empire 
in the world. It is not without design that God has 
so ordered. It must have been to meet some great 
emergency. The emergency has come. " Who 
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for 
such a time as this ? " 

" The suggestion of Providence being concerned in 
the matter was like life from the dead to Esther. 
The idea of Providence having been now some time 
working up to this point was an immense comfort 
and impulse to her mind. It was a Hash of light 
that lit up the whole scene for a moment. And 
when that one moment was sped, the darkness that 
returned was not, as before, unrelieved. There was 
a distinct line of light athwart it. Confidence as to 

* Brenz. 



Suspense, Agony, Kesolution. 187 

the final issue of all was far from present. Nothing 
like absolute conviction that in the end all would be 
well could Esther boast. Suspense in some shape 
still prolonged its unwelcome sojourn. But it was no 
longer the agonized suspense of not knowing what to 
do, of not knowing whether to move at all. The 
pent-up heart is bad enough, but solitary confine- 
ment must make it much worse. Pent-up hope is a 
terrible strain, but the strain becomes much worse 
when it must be tolerated without one active effort, 
one healthy struggle. This phase of things had now 
passed by for Esther. She had gone faithfully 
through it, and was none the worse for having 
treated it as a thing that needed to be gone through 
faithfully and unhurriedly. Mordecai was not nec- 
essarily in the right when he seemed to wonder at 
Esther's hesitation. Though we credit him with 
being a wise man, a. good man, and very full of pride 
in Esther and love to her, Esther very likely felt that 
he had not put himself quite in her position, and 
could not do so. But it was because she had gone 
faithfully through the struggle, and well looked at the 
question on both sides, and considered its alternative 
difficulties and perils, that when enough light did 
come she used it in a moment ; and when thought 
had done its fair amonnt of work, hesitation fled, and 
determination succeeded to its place. To wearied 
human inquiry, to exhausted human resources, to 



188 Beauty Crowned. 

bewildered human wisdom, comes in most wel- 
come the ministry, little thought of before, of the 
Invisible." 

Esther had decided to go into the presence of the 
king, and thus break a royal law, and to make a re- 
quest which it was impossible for the king to grant, 
and which at the same time would reveal her nation- 
ality, and her hostility to the most powerful royal 
favorite, and oppose the king's edict, while it would 
declare herself and all her relatives condemned to 
death as criminals and traitors by an irreversible 
sentence. But she would not venture her life upon 
this perilous mission without special religious prep- 
aration, and the assistance of the prayers of God's 
chosen people. 

So great is the influence which she has gained over 
her maids and the other servants of her palace that 
she knows that she can depend upon their sympathy, 
and that they will join with her in a strict fast, which 
shall have no interruption till the third day. They 
will spend the time in humiliation, repentance, and 
supplication before God. She commands Mordecai 
to assemble the Jews of Shushan, and with them 
observe a religious fast during the same time. 

The beautiful queen and her maids are in earnest, 
tearful supplication, Mordecai and the Jews are cry- 
ing before God, and the city Shushan is perplexed ; 
but Xerxes and Hainan sit and drink their wine. 



Suspense, Agony, Resolution. 189 

The Fast of Esther is observed annually on the 
thirteenth of the month Adar, to commemorate that 
dark day. This fast gave way, during the Maccabsean 
period and for some years later, to a festival celebrat- 
ing the victory of the Jews under Judas Maccabaeus 
over Nicanor. This festival ceased to be celebrated, 
and in the ninth century the Fast of Esther was again 
instituted and has been celebrated annually since that 
date. On this day there is neither eating nor drinking, 
but penitential songs are sung and special prayers 
offered. When the thirteenth of Adar comes on 
the Sabbath the fast is observed on Friday. Some 
Jews, following the example of Esther, fast three days. 

How this fast was observed by the Jews of Shush an 
may be learned by reference to Jewish customs as 
. revealed in the Scriptures. 1 Kings xxi, 27-29 ; Neh. 
i, 4 ; Joel i, 14 ; Jonah iii, 5 et. seq. 

Esther was strengthened in her purpose. Her 
faith was brighter. She recognized the hand of 
Providence. She saw her supreme opportunity. 
She became a magnificent heroine. The conflict 
of emotions had ceased. Self had uncondition- 
ally capitulated. She resolved and — "if I per- 
ish, I perish." These are not the words of despair, 
not the words of stoicism, not the words of one so 
exhausted as to become indifferent ; they are the 
words of heroic resignation. Gen. xliii, 14. 

The real victory of Esther was the victory of faith. 



190 Beauty Crowned. 

The hand of Hainan had set in motion fearful ma- 
chinery. The engine of destruction was advancing 
and would overtake and crush all. Mordecai, with 
undefined faith and uncertain hope, kept near the 
palace, as if to remain close as possible to one who 
must have sadly needed his sympathy, advice, and 
prayers. He could do nothing more. Esther must, 
at the last, bear the awful responsibility alone. While 
on the one hand she was moved by the tenderest 
considerations, in her love for Mordecai and her 
loyalty to her own people, on the other hand there 
were tormenting apprehensions in regard to the issue 
of the course proposed. Interests of incalculable 
moment depended upon her decision. Lives and 
hearts and things most sacred were in her hands — if 
God but prospered her appeals. How much depended 
upon one woman ! How valuable appeared then a 
single life ! She was compelled to contend with the 
most aggravating contradictions. On the one side, 
love of kindred, duty to God, the expostulations of 
Mordecai, his command, the momentum of long obe- 
dience, fear of personal harm, patriotism, and religion, 
impelled her to go to the king ; on the other side, 
possible disgrace and death, with the failure of the 
whole effort and the occasion for hastening and render- 
ing more thorough the slaughter of her people. 
What should Esther do? Never was poor mortal 
compelled to decide a more difficult question. The 



Suspense, Agony, Resolution. 191 

ruling appeal at the last was the religious. " A 
woman's discernment is notably quick, and her sight 
intuition, and the eye of Esther opened and met the 
eye of Heaven falling on her and on all her anxiety." 
This resolve, this victory of faith, this supreme 
capitulation of self, made her one of the greatest 
heroines of sacred history. 



192 Beauty Ckowned. 



XII. 

MAGNIFICENT HEROISM, MASTERLY DELAY, WAKEFUL 
PROVIDENCE. 

"The king held out to Esther the golden scepter." — Esther v, 2. 
" What is thy petition ? and it shall be granted thee." — Esther v, 6. 
"Let the king and Haman come to the banquet." — Esther v, 8. 
" Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart." 
— Esther v, 9. 

"All this availeth me nothing." — Esther v, 13. 
"Let a gallows be made." — Esther v, 14. 

At the close of the fast, " on the third day," Esther 
prepared to petition the king. She neglected no 
precaution that might increase the probabilities of 
success. She put on her " royal apparel " — the love 
tokens of her husband — to awaken again his early 
affections. 

" The hour was one which found incalculable hu- 
man interests at stake. ■ The blotting out of existence, 
the swift swallowing up of human lives innumerable, 
with all their precious freightage of love and joy, of 
purpose and hope, was no light fancy, no vague fear 
now. Yet that was the appalling uncertainty be- 
neath the burden of which the solemn hour bended. 
It was not dull cloudiness of sky alone, and that 
made worse by unnecessary apprehension and weak 



Magnificent Heroism, 193 

fearf ulness. It was one defined dark mass of cloud. 
To all human appearance the question of the hour 
depended on the caprice of one man. It did not re- 
semble some case of great interest, which was going 




King on his Throne. 

to have the best attention of a select number of the 

best of people, and thereupon a deliberate decision 

be taken. In that hour the momentary whim of a 

capricious despot would decide the question of life 
13 , 



194 Beauty Crowned. 

or death, for the innocent Esther first, and after her 
for a whole race, of which she was then the head and 
representative." * 

She " stood in the inner court of the king's house, 
over against the king's house : and the king sat upon 
his royal throne in the royal house, over against the 
gate of the house." Esther v, 1. 

" There she stands, with her jeweled foot upon 
the grave. A noble spectacle ! not so much for her 
unrivaled beauty, still less for the splendor of her 
apparel, as for the resolution to venture life, and 
either save her nation or perish in the attempt. In 
her blooming youth, in the admiration of the court, 
in the affection of her husband, in her lofty rank, in 
her queenly honor, she has every thing to make life 
attractive. Hers is a golden cup, and it is foaming 
with pleasure to the brim. But her mind is made up 
to die, and so with a silent prayer, and ' If I perish, I 
perish' on her lips, she passes in, and now stands 
mute and pallid, yet calm and resolute, outside the 
ring of nobles to hear her doom. 'Nor has she to en- 
dure the agony of a long suspense. Her fate, which 
seems to tremble in the balance, is soon determined. 
~No sooner does the monarch catch sight of the beau- 
tiful woman, and brave and good as beautiful, whom 
he had raised from slavery to share his bed and 
throne, than her apprehensions vanish ; the clouds 

- * Barker. 



Magnificent Heroism. 195 

break, and she finds, as we often do with Christ, that 
her fears had wronged her lord. Presently his hand 
stretches out the golden scepter ; the business of the 
court is stopped. ' The queen ! the queen ! ' divides 
the crowd of nobles ; and up that brilliant lane she 
walks in majesty and in charms that outvie her gems, 
to hear the blessed words, 4 What wilt thou, Queen 
Esther ? and what is thy request ? it shall be even 
given thee to the half of the kingdom.' " * 

The sight of a speaking human face is ever the 
strongest argument to secure love, sympathy, trust, 
and help. Personal presence is a powerful indorse- 
ment to a petition. 

There were many reasons why Esther should not at 
that time present her petition. She was not sure of 
the king. She must not interpret too literally his ex- 
travagant Oriental promise. Such promises were not 
uncommon, and were fulfilled when the heart of the 
kin £ was right. 

Herod swore to the daughter of Herodias, " What- 
soever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto 
the half of my kingdom.' 1 Mark vi, 23. 

At Sardis Xerxes contracted a passion for the wife 
of Masistes. His advances were not encouraged by 
the noble woman, and he had great respect for and 
fear of Masistes, who was his brother. To accom- 
plish his ends he betrothed his own son Darius to the 

* Guthrie. 



196 Beauty Crowned. 

daughter of Masistes, but upon receiving the newly 
married couple in his palace at Susa he lost his old 
love and conceived a passion for Artaynta, the wife 
of Masistes' son. 

" Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, had woven with her 
own hands a long robe of many colors, and very 
curious, which she presented to her husband as a gift. 
Xerxes, who was greatly pleased with it, forthwith 
put it on, and went in to visit Artaynta, who hap- 
pened likewise on this day to please him greatly. He 
therefore bade her ask him whatever boon she liked, 
and promised that, whatever it was, he would as- 
suredly grant her request. Then Artajmta, who was 
doomed to suffer calamity with all her house, said 
to him, ' Wilt thou indeed give me whatever I like 
to ask ? ' So the king, suspecting nothing less than 
that her choice would fall where it did, pledged his 
word, and swore to her. She then, as soon as she 
heard his oath, asked boldly for the robe. Hereupon 
Xerxes tried all possible means to avoid the gift, not 
that he grudged to give it, but because he dreaded 
Amestris, who already suspected, and would now, he 
feared, detect his love. So he offered her cities in- 
stead, and heaps of gold, and an army wdiich should 
obey no other leader. (The last of these is a thor- 
oughly Persian gift.) But, as nothing could prevail on 
Artaynta to change her mind, at the last he gave her 
the robe. Then Artaynta was very greatly rejoiced, 



Magnificent Heroism. 197 

and she often wore the garment and was proud of it. 
And so it came to the ears of Amestris that the robe 
had been given to her." 

On the king's birthday he gave a great royal ban- 
quet, as was the custom. The law of such a feast was 
that no one who asked a boon, whatever it might be, 
should be denied his request. When, therefore, 
Amestris asked for the wife of Masistes, whom she 
justly blamed for the love which Xerxes bore to 
Artaynta, he could not refuse the boon. " At length, 
however, wearied by her importunity, and constrained 
moreover by the law of the feast, which required that 
ho one who asked a boon that day at the king's board 
should be denied his request, he yielded, but with a 
very ill will, and gave the wife of Masistes into her 
power." Xerxes now endeavored in vain to per- 
suade Masistes to put away his wife, even promising 
him his own daughter in marriage. 

" While these things were passing between Xerxes 
and his brother Masistes, Amestris sent for the spear- 
men of the royal body-guard, and caused the wife of 
Masistes to be mutilated in a horrible fashion. Her 
two breasts, her nose, ears, and lips were cut off and 
thrown to the dogs ; her tongue was torn out by the 
roots, and thus disfigured she was sent back to her 
home." Masistes now hastened to Bactria, over which 
he was satrap, intending to avenge himself by stirring 
up a revolt among the Bactrians and Sacans, but 



198 Beauty Crowned. 

Xerxes, learning his designs, sent an army which 
overtook him and slew him and his sons and all his 
followers. " Such is the tale of king Xerxes' love 
and of the death of his brother Masistes."* But 
Esther was to make a larger request than these, and 
must be sure of her ground. 

Again, it would not be wise to present her petition 
in the presence of the court. Hainan was the Prime 
Minister, and had doubtless made many influential 
friends, who would save him if his life were threat- 
ened. If the queen could gain a private audience 
with the king, and have Hainan present, she could 
then accuse him to his face. Such a course of delay 
would be in strict accordance with Oriental usage. 
" In presenting a request to a superior, it is extremely 
common to begin with an outlying, subordinate 
matter, and have the answer, the argument, or the 
battle over that. If the petition is received favorably, 
it will be easy to ask a little more, and so on up to 
the thing really desired. Thus the entire matter is 
not compromised, nor either the petitioner or the 
petitioned committed finally by the first refusal. Of 
course the one petitioned often sees through the whole 
from the start ; but on the one hand it is a form, and 
on the other hand it is a useful form — two good 
reasons for keeping it up. Sometimes the petitioned 
cuts short the petitioner at the start, and goes on 

* Herodotus, ix. 108-113. 



Magnificent Heroism. 199 

from his own intuition to grant the whole desired 
favor." * Solomon had the grace to refuse the final 
request after the general promise. 1 Kings ii, 13-25. 
Xerxes may do the same. 

The only safety is for the queen to delay. So she 
invites the king and Haman on that day to a banquet 
which she has prepared. The king usually dines 
alone, or with the queen or queen-mother, or with his 
children or one or two brothers. It is an extra- 
ordinary favor to invite a guest who is not a member 
of the royal family. Haman may well consider him- 
self highly honored. The king graciously accepts the 
invitation, and commands notice to be given at once 
to Haman, w T ho does not seem to be present, that he 
may hasten his preparations and be at the banquet in 
due season. 

The king and Haman went to the banquet, and we 
may be sure that Esther neglected nothing that might 
give pleasure to her royal husband. The banquet 
was terminated by a special banquet of wine, at which 
they sat long ; drinking the wine of Helbon and eating 
a great variety of highly seasoned delecacies. It was 
doubtless when the king's heart was " merry " that he 
repeated his question, " What is thy petition ? and it 
shall be granted thee." 

Esther began to answer, " My petition and my re- 
quest" — but her heart failed her. She saw, as by an 

* Isaac H. Hall. 



200 Beauty Crowned. 

instantaneous flash of wisdom, that her best hope was 
in further delay. So she ended by inviting them to 
a similar banquet which she would prepare for the 
next day. The inspiration which brought her to 
this decision was most happy, as we shall see, for 
events ripened rapidly which led to the climax of the 
tragedy. 

Haman went out from the banquet "joyful and 
with a glad heart." He had reached the height of 
his ambition. He was next to the king. People 
bowed before him as they did before the monarch 
himself. His word was law. He, of all the great 
men of his time, enjoyed the confidence of the queen 
and was honored by her equally with the king. But 
in passing the king's gate he saw Mordecai the Jew — 
who bowed not, neither trembled in his presence. 
Dignified and self-possessed, he did not notice great 
Haman. The latter was "full of indignation," but 
with an effort refrained himself. He might have 
ordered an attendant to thrust him through with the 
sword, and it would have been done ; but he medi- 
tated a sweeter vengeance. 

After having had ample leisure to reflect upon his 
conduct in refusing homage to Haman, Mordecai was 
only confirmed in his course. 

" There's a picture ! standing out in bold relief, 
and contrasted with that of the proud but worthless 
premier. The one haughty and enraged ; the other 



Magnificent Heroism. 201 

humble, but composed and dignified. It is not the 
port, the state, the pageantry ; it is not the rank, 
the riches, or power; the mind and spirit — that is the 
man. The person who occupies the place of a com- 
mon porter may have within him a sou) that towers 
in real greatness far above that of the proudest and 
most titled grandee. He may have that within him 
which, while it rouses the indignation, quails the 
courage of him who has armies at his back. He who 
is conscious of acting rightly has no reason to grow 
pale at the sight of danger. He who is embarked in 
the cause of God and his people, and whose conscience 
acquits him of having failed in his duty to his prince, 
or of having done evil to any man, feels himself clad in 
the panoply of heaven ; stands fearless and scathless, 
is immovable in his purpose, and will not do a mean 
or unworthy, far less a sinful thing, to save his own 
life, or the lives of those whom he holds dearest." * 

Reaching home, Haman sends for his friends and 
flatterers, and when they have gathered, and his wife 
also is present, he parades before them his fortune 
and honors. He has amassed great wealth. Evi- 
dently he had made his position serve his selfishness 
and covetousness. His magnificent offer of ten 
thousand talents for the property of the Jews was 
doubtless in keeping with his shrewd business and 
avaricious instincts. His second boast w T as his mul- 

♦M'Crie. 



202 Beauty Crowned. 

titude of children — being ten sons. " Next to 
prowess in arms, it is regarded as the grandest proof 
of manly excellence to be the father of many sons. 
Every year the king sends rich gifts to the man who 
can show the largest number : for they hold that 
number is strength."* 

" Sheikh Ali Mirza, a son of the well-known 
Futteli Ali Shah, was accounted the proudest and 
happiest man in the empire, because, when he rode 
out on state occasions, he was attended by a body- 
guard of sixty of his own sons. At the time of 
Futteli Ali Shah's death his direct decendants 
amounted to nearly three thousand, some of them 
being in the fifth degree, and every Persian in con- 
sequence felt a pride in being the subject of such a 
king. The greatest misfortune, indeed, that can 
befall a man in Persia is to be childless. When a 
chief's ' hearthstone? as it was said, i was dark? he 
lost all respect, and hence arose the now universal 
, practice of adoption. "f 

" The kings propose annual prizes for a numerous 
family of children." J It was a great blessing, among 
orientals, to possess a large family of sons. 

Again, the king had promoted Hainan to the high- 
est office in the kingdom, save only the throne itself. 
This was pleasing not only because of its proof of 
kingly favor, its honors, and its emoluments, but more 
* Herodotus, i, 13G. f H. C. Rawlinson. \ Strabo, xv, 3, 17. 



Magnificent Heroism. 203 

especially because " lie had advanced him above the 
princes and servants of the king." He could look 
down upon all these. 

Finally, he concludes : " Yea, Esther the queen did 
let no man come in with the king unto the banquet 
that she had prepared but myself ; and to morrow am 
I invited unto her also with the king." Esther v, 12. 

No man has ever found happiness in such worldly 
gifts. The human heart wants something more — 
something different. The material universe cannot 
fill one single soul. Haman confesses that all his 
honors and all his riches give him " no satisfaction." 
There is one drop of gall in his cap — Mordecai sits 
at the king's gate. To be sure, he will soon be slain 
with all his hated race. But how can Haman wait ? 

Haman enjoyed the confidence of his own family. 
He could rely upon their loyalty. He knew that 
within his own home and within the circle of his 
friends he could find sympathy. He opened to them 
all his heart. • 

Zeresh, his wife, is equal to the emergency. She 
will remove the difficulty. Like Jezebel, she pro- 
poses heroic treatment. All his friends second her 
plan. In her indignation and rage against the Jew 
she speaks impulsively and to the point. "Let a 
gallows he made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow 
speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be 
hanged thereon : then go thou in merrily with the 



204 Beauty t Crowned. 

king unto the banquet." There is the solution to the 
problem. .No one will dare thereafter to neglect to 
pay proper homage to great Hainan. 

The plan commends itself to the judgment of 
Hainan. It is speedy, effective, and final. Why 
had he not thought of that before? The carpenters 
are employed and immediately set to work. The 
" gallows " is erected. 

The king will grant the reasonable request for 
permission to put Mordecai to death. We have seen 
how he gave the life of the wife of JVIasistes to 
Amestris. He cannot deny Hainan. 



Wheels Within Wheels. 205 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

• WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. 

" On that night could not the king sleep." — Esther yi, 1. 
" What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to 
honor? " — Esther vi, 6. 

"Do even so to Mordecai." — Esther vi, 10. 

The king of this vast empire of kingdoms was 
powerless to command his own sleep. That very 
night this fickle servant escaped and fled from him, 
and, pursue as he might, he could not overtake and 
secure the fugitive. To beguile his weary hours, as 
he tossed upon his restless couch, a secretary was 
commanded to bring the record of the daily affairs 
and to read to him therefrom.* While reading from 
this official document, the secretary, came to that part 
of the chronicles in which it was related that Mordecai 
discovered the conspiracy of Bigthana and Teresh, and 
saved the king's life. The king became interested in 
the history, and at the close of the account inquires, 
" What honor and dignity hath been done to Morde- 
cai for this % " He learns that the service has received 
no recognition beyond the mere record of the fact. 

* Esther ii, 23; Ezra iv, 15, 19; Herodotus, vii, 100; viii, 90; 
Tacitus, Annals xiii, 31. 



206 Beauty Ckowned. 

From a sense of gratitude, and to more perfectly 
secure his own personal future safety, the king could 
not permit such a service to remain unrewarded. 
Indeed his conscience condemned him for neglecting 
so imperative an obligation so long. He will attend 
to the matter as speedily as possible. 

In Persia the king's benefactors were adequately 
rewarded. Their names were placed on a special 
roll. Themistocles the Athenian received magnifi- 
cent recognition from the great king. " The king 
assigned to him, for bread, Magnesia, which produced 
a revenue of fifty talents in the year; for wine, 
Lampsacus, which was considered to be the richest in 
wine of any district then known ; and Myus for 
meat." * Xerxes rewarded with rich gifts those of 
his satraps who brought their troops to Sardis in the 
most gallant array when the great army gathered for 
the invasion of Greece.f Darius gave the Demo- 
cedes who was to act as guide to the fifteen Persians 
who were sent to explore the sea-coast of Greece, " a 
merchantship laden with all manner of precious 
things," for presents to his father and brothers.^ 

Cyrus the younger, wishing to honor Syennesis, 
king of Cilicia, presented him with " a horse with a 
golden bit, a golden chain and golden bracelets, and a 
golden scimetar and a Persian robe." He promised 
to each of the Greeks who accompanied him on his 

* Thucydides, i, 138. \ Herodotus, vii, 26. \ Ibid., iii, 135. 



Wheels Within Wheels. 207 

expedition, besides other rewards, " a golden crown." 
The retreating Greeks gave him who had guided 
them to the sea " a horse, a silver cup, a Persian robe, 
and ten darics." * 

Xerxes on his march to Greece honored the 
Acanthians by the gift of a Median robe. Tiie con- 
spirators who slew Pseudo-Smerdis, and placed Darius 
Hystaspis upon the throne of Persia, gave Otanes, 
one of their number who withdrew from the candi- 
dacy, as a special honor, a Median robe each year. 
Artaxerxes presented to Mithridates, who gave Cyrus 
his first wound, " a robe embroidered with gold, brace- 
lets and a chain, and a scimetar." f 

The three young men of the king's body guard ex- 
pected to receive from Darius, as a gift to him who 
showed the highest wisdom, " great gifts, and great 
tokens of victory ; as, to be clothed in purple, and 
to drink in gold, and to sleep upon gold, and a cha- 
riot with gold-studded bridles, and a tiara of byssus, 
and a chain about his neck ; and he shall sit next to 
Darius because of his wisdom and be called Darius' 
kinsman." Esdras iii, 6, 7. Joseph gave his brethren 
changes of raiment. Gen. xl, 22. When the king of 
Syria sent to the king of Israel Naaman to be re- 
covered of his leprosy, he accompanied his request 

* Xenophon, Anabasis I, ii, 27 ; I, vii, 5 ; IY, vii, 27. 
f Herodotus, vii, 116; iii, 83, 84, Xenophon, Anabasis I, ix, 22-26, 
Plutarch, vol. iii, p. 447. 



208 Beauty Crowned. 

with a present of "ten talents of silver, and six thou- 
sand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment." 
2 Kings v, 5. Among the presents which " the kings 
of the earth" brought to Solomon was "raiment." 
2 Chron. ix, 24. 

Koyalty's benefactors sometimes waited long for 
their reward. In some cases they were doubtless 
entirely forgotten.* 

The king's sleepless night was great with issues 
which were destined to affect the whole empire, and 
the religious history of the Jews and The World. 
Providence was also sleepless. The deeds of a good 
man were not forgotten. Mordecai must receive a 
kingly reward. The chosen people of God were not 
forgotten. 

Hainan was stirring early in the morning. The 
gallows had been finished. He hastened to the royal 
palace to receive orders for the execution of Mor- 
decai. On that day he wished to go to the queen's 
banquet " merrily," with nothing to mar his perfect 
satisfaction and his perfect happiness. He was now 
waiting in the court for the announcement to be 
made that the king was ready for the transaction of 
business. It would not be many minutes thereafter 
before Mordecai would be impaled upon a stake so 
high as to be seen by the whole population of Susa. 
Then the joy of the king's favorite would be full. 

* Herodotus, v, 11; iii, 138, 140. 



Wheels Within Wheels. 209 

No one would dare, after this example of vengeance, 
to withhold- his homage. 

By some movement on the part of the guard the 
king learns that some one is in the court, and inquires 
who it is. He is informed that it is Hainan, and bids 
him enter. 

" So Haman came in. And the king said unto 
him, What shall be done unto the man whom the 
king delighteth to honor % " 

And now we meet with a rare exhibition of su- 
preme selfishness. The king could be thinking of 
no one but Haman. It was not possible that there 
lived a man whom he could delight to honor more 
than his all-powerful favorite, before whom the people 
bowed and who alone of all the great men of the 
empire had been twice invited by the queen to share 
with her and the king a specially prepared banquet. 
So thought Haman. 

" It was not only self, but self in the shape of in- 
sufferable Vanity. It mounted to the pitch of morbid 
vanity. Some are hurried on by selfishness headlong. 
But it is a sleek, a smiling, a self-garlanded victim 
we have here. To the dignity of position already be- 
longing to him fuller gratification (as has been seen) 
is offered ; but it is not honor that his eye can see, that 
his mind can appreciate. The grace and the force of 
his honored position weigh nothing with him. But 

the most egotistic vanity shuts out, and at a most 
14 



210 Beauty Crowned. 

critical moment, the very idea of the barest possibility 
of a worthy competitor with himself! He cannot 
credit the notion of a fellow-creature to compare 
with himself." * 

Having quickly decided who the person must be 
whom the king delighted to honor, Hainan looked 
about for some appropriate recognition of his ex- 
traordinary virtues. He had a most difficult task. 
He had already received the highest honors in the 
gift of both the king and the queen. Nothing higher 
could be conceived, except to be raised to the throne 
itself. But Haman had a fertile mind, and was equal 
to the emergency. He could for a time assume the 
insignia of royalty and receive the homage due only 
to the king. 

So Haman answered : " Let the royal apparel be 
brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse 
that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which 
is set upon his head ; and let this apparel and horse 
be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most 
noble princes, that they may array the man withal 
whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him 
on horseback through the street of the city, and pro- 
claim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man 
whom the king delighteth to honor.'' Esther vi, 9. 

This was a higher honour than that which the 
Pharaoh bestowed upon Joseph. Gen. lxi, 42, 43. 
* Barker. 



Wheels Within Wheels. 211 

To wear a dress which had been previously worn 
by the king was a capital offense, yet it might be 
allowed.* 

Arrian tells the story: "That as Alexander was 
sailing on the Euphrates, and his turban happened to 
fall off among some reeds, one of his watermen im- 
mediately jumped in and swam to it ; but as he could 
not bring it back in his hand without wetting it, 
he put it upon his head, and so returned with it. 
Whereupon most historians that have wrote of 
Alexander (says he) tell us, that he gave him a 
talent of silver for this expression of his zeal to 
serve him, but, at the same time, ordered his head 
to be struck off for presuming to put on the royal 
diadem." f 

When Demaratus, the Lacedaemonian, had been or- 
dered by the king to ask whatsoever he pleased and 
it should be immediately granted him, he desired that 
he might make his public entrance into Sardis, and 
be carried in state through the city with the tiara set 
in the royal manner upon his head. But the cousin 
to the king touched him on the head, and told him 
that he had no brains for the royal tiara to cover, 
and if Jupiter should give him his lightning and 
thunder, he would not any the more be Jupiter for 
that ; the king also repulsed him with anger, resolv- 

* Herodotus, vii, 11. 

f Burder, Note in Josephus, Antiquities. 



212 Beauty Crowned. 

ing never to be reconciled to him, but to be inexor- 
able to all supplications on his behalf." * 

Of Artaxerxes the following is related : " Teribazus 
once, when they were hunting, came up and pointed 
out to the king that his royal robe was torn; the 
king asked him what he wished him to do ; and when 
Taribazus replied, ' May it please you to put on an- 
other and give me that,' the king did so, saying 
withal, 'I give it you, Teribazus, but I charge you 
not to wear it.' He, little regarding the injunction, 
being not a bad, but a light-headed, thoughtless man, 
immediately the king took it off, put it on, and be- 
decked himself further with royal golden necklaces 
and women's ornaments, to the great scandal of every 
body, the thing being quite unlawful. But the king 
laughed, and told him, ' You have my leave to wear the 
trinkets as a woman, and the robe of state as a fool.' "f 

It was a large request that Hainan presented in 
behalf of himself. But he felt sure of his ground. 
He was all-powerful with the king. 

What, then, must have been his feelings when the 
king commanded him to so honor Mordecai ! " Make 
haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou 
hast said, and do even so to Mordecai, the Jew, that 
sitteth at the king's gate : let nothing fail of all that 
thou hast spoken." Esther vi, 10. " If the king had 

* Plutarch, Themistocles, vol. i. p. 195. 

f Plutarch. Artaxerxes, vol. iii, pp. 439, 440. 



Wheels Within Wheels. 213 

known all his most secret feelings, and had lain on 
the watch to wound him in the point on which he was 
most sensitive, and had chosen the most fitting op- 
portunity to make the wound deep beyond endurance, 
he could not have issued a command so calculated to 
make Haman writhe under it as this one. And the 
command at the same time was so peremptory, that 
he durst not say nay to it." * 

The account in the Talmud is purely imaginary, 
and shows little appreciation of the Persian spirit. 
Haman is represented as pleading with the king and 
offering many objections to the proposed honors. 

" And Haman answered, i There are many Jews in 
Shushan who are called Mordecai ; which one is to 
have the honor % ' 

" i Do all this that thou hast spoken,' replied the 
king, ' to Mordecai the Jew who lives by the king's 
gate ; he who hath spoken well to the king and saved 
his life.' 

"When Haman heard these words the blood seemed 
to congeal in his heart ; his face grew blanched, his 
eyes became dim, and his moutlras though paralyzed ; 
with great effort he said, 

" ' O king, how — how — can I tell which Mordecai 
thou meanest ? ' 

" ' I have but just said,' returned the king ; i he 
who dwells at my gate.' 

* Davidson. 



214 Beauty Crowned. 

" ' But he hates me,' exclaimed Haman, ' me and 
my ancestors ; do not force me to do him this honor, 
and I will pay ten thousand silver talents into thy 
treasury.' 

" The king answered, ' Though I should give that 
ten thousand talents to Mordecai, aye, and give him 
also thy house to rule over it, yet this honor which 
thou hast spoken shouldest thou also do to him.' 

" ' My ten sons shall run before thy chariot,' plead- 
ed Haman ; ' they shall be thy slaves, if thou wilt 
but forego this order.' 

"The king answered, ' Though thou and thy wife 
and thy ten sons should be slaves to Mordecai, yet 
this honor should be also his.' 

" But Haman still entreated. ' Lo, Mordecai is but 
a common subject of the king. Appoint him ruler 
of a city, a province, or a street — let that be the 
honor paid him.' 

" And again the king replied : ' Though I should 
appoint him ruler over all my provinces, though I 
should cause him to command all who owe me obe- 
dience on sea and land, still this honor, too, which 
thou hast spoken, should be done him. Surely he 
who has spoken to the advantage of his king, he 
who has preserved the life of his king, deserves all 
that should belong to the one whom the king most 
delights to honor. 

" ' But the letters,' continued Haman, ' the letters 



Wheels Within Wheels. 215 

winch have been sent to all thy provinces, condemn- 
ing him and his people to death.' 

" ' Peace, peace ! ' exclaimed the king ; ' though 
they should be recalled, Mordecai should still be 
honored as thou hast spoken. Say no more, Haman ; 
as thon hast spoken, do quickly ; leave out nothing 
of all that thou hast said.' 

" When Haman saw that all appeal was useless, he 
obeyed the king's orders with a heavy heart." * 

Haman knew the king too well to have hesitated 
for a moment, or to have shown the slightest surprise. 
He went immediately and procured the royal apparel, 
and the king's horse with the crown upon his head — 
"there is seen on Assyrian and old Persian monu- 
ments, not so distinct on the latter, horses of the 
king, and perhaps also of princes, that wear an orna- 
ment on their heads terminating in three points, 
which can easily be taken for a crown " — sought 
Mordecai, announced the command of the king, 
placed upon the Jew the royal robe, seated him on 
the king's horse, brought him through the streets of 
the city, and proclaimed again and again before him, 
" Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king 
delighteth to honor." 

*Polano, Selections from, the Talmud, pp. 207, 208. 



216 Beauty Crowned. 



XIV. 

POETIC JUSTICE. 

" We are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to 
perish." — Esther vii, 4. 

" Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in Ms heart to do 
so ? " — Esther vii, 5. 

" The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." — Esther vii, G. 

"Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman hud made 
for Mordecai." — Esther vii, 9. 

" Hang him thereon." — Esther vii, 9. 

Mordecai returned to his post of duty at the 
king's gate. Haman hastened to his home, hiding 
his face so as to avoid recognition, and sought the 
sympathy of his family and confidential friends. 
But here he met with a new and unexpected disap- 
pointment. Greatly dejected, he recounted to his 
w T ife and friends what had befallen him since his de- 
parture in the morning. His wise men could dis- 
cover but an evil omen. They can only say : " If 
Mordecai he of the seed of"- the Jews, before whotn 
thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against 
him, but shalt surely fall before him." There was 
no time for consultation. There was no time to 
form any plans. Destiny rushes storming on. "And 
while they were yet talking with him, came the 



Poetic Justice. 217 

king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman 
unto the banquet that Esther had prepared." He 
went, but not " merrily." Esther vi, 13, 14 

At the feast every thing looks propitious for Ha- 
man. The king becomes unusually merry, feeds the 
pride of Haman, and is ready to bestow upon him 
every honor. The queen is modest, attractive, beau- 
tiful, and entertaining, and smiles sweetly. Surely 
his position and standing with the king and queen 
are secure. All will soon be bright again. He will 
yet be avenged upon his enemy. The cloud disap- 
pears from his mind. He is merry. 

Again, for the third time, the king asked : " "What 
is thy petition, Queen Esther? and it shall be granted 
thee : and what is thy request ? and it shall be per- 
formed, even to the half of the kingdom." The curi- 
osity of Xerxes was excited, and she could not trine 
with his anxiety to know her desire. She had more 
than regained her place in his affections. He was 
ready to grant her request. This was her opportu- 
nity. Her lips are at last unsealed. She speaks, and 
speaks directly to the point. There are in her words 
the skill of earnestness and the art of artlessness. In 
two burning sentences she tells the whole truth. She 
petitions for her own life and that of her people. 
If they had been condemned only to be sold into 
slavery she would have held her peace, although 
were the enemy to exhaust all his resources the king 



218 Beauty Crowned. 

would have been the loser. But she cannot be silent 
when she and her people have been sold to destroy, 
to kill, and to cause to perish. She uses the very 
words of the infamous decree. There can be no mis- 
taking her meaning. 

Her nationality is revealed. The king sees what he 
has done. He is aroused and excited. " He throws 
out his pronouns in a wild confusion of excitement, 
and then repeats them with the order inverted. ' Who 
is he, that one — and where is that one, he, whose 
heart has filled him (with the audacity) to do so ? ' — 
it is clear that the identification cannot wait. It must 
be prompt and unmistakable. And the queen is 
equal to the demand. The queen's blood is up. She 
sees her advantage ; and she speaks with all the 
vehemence of one who has deeply felt the monstrous 
injustice of Hainan's plot. The collocation of the 
words in the Hebrew leaves no doubt that they were 
accompanied with a gesture of the hand; her scorn 
and righteous indignation flashed out, as it were, at 
her very finger's-end, as she pointed to him. ' The 
man, adversary, and enemy, is Hainan, the wretch, 
this (one).' Well might he be terror-stricken in that 
presence. He reads, in the king's countenance and 
in his movements, the angry excitement that has 
taken possession of him." * 

It is a thunder-clap from a clear sky. His favorite 
* The Lowell Hebrew Club, The Book of Esther, p. 69. 



Poetic Justice. 219 

minister of state, whom lie has raised to a position of 
unexampled dignity and power, has betrayed his con- 
fidence. His matchless queen stands upon the crum- 
bling brink of a volcanic crater. A nation of peace- 
able, law-abiding, and industrious citizens has been 
doomed to slaughter. He himself has been led to 
give his royal sanction to the wicked and nefarious 
plot. The king rises from the table in uncontrolla- 
ble anger, and goes out into the garden of the palace, 
not so much to cool his wrath as to collect his 
thoughts. He walks back and forth in the vain en- 
deavor to control the whirlwind of passion that rages 
within his breast. The atrocity of the intended mas- 
sacre grows upon him, and his soul is set on fire. 

Haman has no hope in the king. Perhaps the heart 
of the queen can be moved. He pleads before her 
for his life. His case is most desperate. The mo- 
ments are precious. He pleads more earnestly. In 
a frenzy of despair he bows his head upon the couch 
where the queen reclines at the banquet. In his 
agony of deadly fear he catches hold upon her robe, 
and embraces her feet. 

The king returns from the garden. He sees Ha- 
man in the attitude of supplication at the feet of the 
queen. The pent-up fires of his wrath must burst 
forth. Can it be that Haman hopes to force the 
queen to yield to his petition, and thus save his life, 
by the very anguish of his mortal terror ? The thought 



220 Beauty Crowned. 

feeds his rage. The commandment — not " the word," 
(the Hebrew ddbhar is rendered " commandment " 
eight times in the Book of Esther) — the command- 
ment went forth from the king's mouth. It was Ha- 
inan's condemnation, and the king's attendants cover 
his face. He is no longer worthy to behold the light 
of day. 

"When the last of the Horatii returned from his 
conquest, carrying the spoils of the Curiatii, " his sis- 
ter, a maiden who had been betrothed to one of 
the Curiatii, met him before the gate Capena, 
and having recognized her lover's military robe, 
which she herself had wrought, on her brother's 
shoulders, she tore her hair, and with bitter wailings 
called by name on her deceased lover. The sister's 
lamentations in the midst of his own victory, and of 
such great public rejoicings, raised the indignation of 
the excited youth. Having, therefore, drawn his 
sword, he ran the damsel through the body, at the 
same time chiding her in these words : ' Go hence 
with thy unseasonable love to thy spouse, forgetful of 
thy dead brothers, and of him who survives ; forget- 
ful of thy native country. So perish every Roman 
woman who shall mourn an enemy.' This action 
seemed shocking to the fathers and to the people ; 
but his recent services outweighed its guilt. Never- 
theless he was carried before the king for judgment. 
The king, that he himself might not be the author 



Poetic Justice. 221 

of a decision so melancholy, and so disagreeable to 
the people, or of the punishment consequent on that 
decision, having summoned an assembly of the peo- 
ple, says, ' I appoint, according to law, duumvirs to 
pass sentence on Horatius for treason.' The law was 
of dreadful import. ' Let the duumvirs pass sen- 
tence for treason. If he appeal from the duumvirs, 
let him contend by appeal; if they shall gain the 
cause, cover his head ; hang him by a rope from a 
gallows ; scourge him either within the Pomoerium 
or without the Pomoerium.' When the duumvirs 
appointed by this law, who did not consider that, 
according to law, they could acquit even an innocent 
person, had found him guilty, one of them says, i P. 
Horatius, I judge thee guilty of treason. Go, lictor, 
bind his hands.' The lictor had approached him, 
and was fixing the rope. Then Horatius, by the ad- 
vice of Tullus, a favorable interpreter of the law, 
says, ' I appeal.' Accordingly, the matter was con- 
tested by appeal to the people. On that trial persons 
were much affected, especially by P. Horatius, the 
father, declaring that he considered his daughter de- 
servedly slain ; were it not so, that he would, by his 
authority as a father have inflicted punishment on 
his son. He then entreated that they would not ren- 
der childless him whom but a little while ago they 
had beheld with a fine progeny. During these words 
the old man, having embraced the youth, pointing to 



222 Beauty Crowned. 

the spoils of the Curiatii fixed up in that place which 
is now called Pila Horatia, ' Roman s,"* said he. 'can 
you bear to see bound beneath a gallows, amidst 
scourges and tortures, him whom you just now be- 
held marching decorated (with spoils) and exulting 
ui victory ; a sight so shocking as the eyes even of 
the Albans could scarcely endure. Go, lictor ; bind 
those hands which but a little while since, being 1 
armed, established sovereignty for the Roman peo- 
ple. Go, cover the head of the liberator of this city ; 
hang him on the gallows ; scourge him, either within 
the Pornoerium, so it be only amidst those javelins 
and spoils of the enemy ; or without the Pornoerium, 
only amidst the graves of the Curiatii. For whither 
can you bring this youth, where his own glories must 
not redeem him from such ignominy of punishment.' 
The people could not withstand the tears of the 
father or the resolution of the son, so undaunted in 
every danger; and acquitted him more through ad- 
miration of his bravery than for the justice of his 
cause. But that so notorious a murder might be 
atoned for by some expiation, the father was com- 
manded to make satisfaction for the son at the public 
charge. He, having offered certain expiatory sacrifices, 
which were ever after continued in the Horatian fami- 
ly, and laid a beam across the street, made his son pass 
under it as under a yoke, with his head covered." * 

* Livy, i, 26. 



Poetic Justice. 



223 



To cover the head was to begin to execute the sen- 
tence. "Philetas — with covered head they brought 
into the palace." * " Go, lictor, bind his hands, cover 
his head, hang him on the hapless tree." f 

The suggestion of Harbonah came just at the right 
time ; " Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high, 
which Haman had made for Mor- 
decai, standeth in the house of 
Haman." The object of Harbonah 
may have been merely to point to 
another evidence of Hainan's mur- 
derous spirit. The king, however, 
thought of something further. 
He commanded sternly, " Hang 
him thereon." The sentence is quickly executed. 
Haman is hurried away, and on the gallows erected 
for Mordecai, high in air, seen by all the inhabitants 
of Shushan, hangs the lifeless body of the enemy and 
adversary of the Jews. u Then was the king's wrath 
pacified." 

°Quintus Curtius, vi, 8, 22. f Cicero, Pro C. Eabiiio, iv, 13. 




Impalement. 



22i Beauty Crowned. 



XV. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 

" And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, 
and gave it unto Mordecai." — Esther viii, 2. 

" The king granted the Jews ..." to stand for their life." — Esther 
viii, 11. 

"The city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad." — Esther viii, 15. 

" The Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day." — Esther 
viii, 17. 

Upon the execution of a criminal his property was 
confiscated to the crown, according to law. Cyrus, in 
his instructions to the governors that were in Syria, 
said : " My will is, that those who disobey these in- 
structions, and make them void, shall be hung upon 
a cross, and their substance brought into the king's 
treasury." * "When Oroetes was slain at the command 
of Darius, his treasures were conveyed to the king at 
Sardis.f Even when a great man was dismissed in 
disgrace his property was forfeited to the crown. 

So, on that very day, the king gave Hainan's prop- 
erty to Esther. The queen now informed Xerxes 
of her relationship to Mordecai, and what kindness 
and care he had shown her as her guardian and 
foster -parent. The king recognized him as a man of 
* Josephus, Antiquities, xi, 1, 3; 4, 6. f Herodotus, iii, 129. 



The Beginning of the End. 225 

worth, and made him the first minister of state. The 
signet-ring, which had been taken from the hand of 
Hainan, the king gave to Mordecai, while Esther 
appointed him administrator of the property of the 
enemy and adversary of the Jews. 

Haman is indeed dead, but the influence of his 
life remains. The decree of extermination is still 
in force against the Jews throughout the whole em- 
pire. Something more must be done. The newly- 
created prime minister does not feel sure of his in- 
fluence with the king. Esther must again inter- 
cede. She ventures into the royal presence. She 
does not present her petition in the same manner 
as formerly. She is now pleading for others. The 
strain upon her mind and heart has been so great 
and so long continued that she cannot maintain her 
former composure. Her womanly tenderness, queenly 
interest and Christian affection can find expression 
only in tears. With a heart bleeding for her people 
she came to the king, " and fell down at his feet, and 
besought him with tears to put away the mischief of 
Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had de- 
vised against the Jews" — "the machination which 
he machinated." "The Hebrew language has no 
stronger word to imply that Haman, a man of great 
powers, put his whole thought and ingenuity into the 
plot of ruining the people of God." * 

* Greene. 
15 



226 Beauty Crowned. 

The king extended to her the golden scepter as a 
pledge of favor, and she arose and stood before him 
and said : " If it please the king, and if I have found 
favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before 
the king, and I he pleasing in his eyes, let it be written 
to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of 
Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy 
the Jews which are in all the king's provinces : for 
how can I endnre to see the evil that shall come unto 
my people ? or how can I endure to see the destruc- 
tion of my kindred ? " Esther viii, 5, G. 

This address shows a noble and truly heroic soul. 
Every respect is shown the king, and she petitions 
only in subordination to his own personal judgment. 
She is careful not to charge the king with an injustice. 
The letters were " devised by Haman." " He wrote " 
the edict of butchery. The king has already passed 
judgment on the murderous plot in condemning 
Haman. He may now complete the work and re- 
verse, by his higher authority, the edict of slaughter 
devised by his subordinate. And now the gentle 
heart of the woman is shown : " How can I endure to 
see the evil that shall come unto my people ? or how 
can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred ? " 

"This verse is the irrepressible outcry of true patri- 
otism. It is the expostulation of vivid and tender 
sympathy. It is the argument of a forcible principle 
of our nature, which oversteps the boundaries of the 



The Beginning of the End. 2-7 

personal and the domestic in order to travel much 
further and to embrace the national. It mounts by 
the stepping-stones of self-love and sacred family 
love to the love of vast numbers of those never seen 
nor personally known, yet in some special sense 
related." * 

The king answers that he has already done enough 
to convince her of his favorable disposition. He has 
executed Hainan and has presented her with his 
vast estate ; and this because Hainan sought the de- 
struction of the Jews. The decree cannot be recalled, 
because it was sealed with the king's seal and is 
hence virtually his own. Something, however, may 
be done toward its mitigation. He grants to Mordecai 
and the queen authority to devise some plan, and to 
issue letters in his name and seal them with his seal. 
They may adopt any plan which they can devise, 
provided only they allow the decree of extermina- 
tion to stand. The fiction of his divine character, and 
hence infallibility, must be maintained. There must 
not be the slightest breath of suspicion that The 
King may possibly make a mistake. The laws of the 
Medes and Persians change not. 

We have noted the many difficulties connected with 
this principle. 

" A Persian king who reigned not very many 
years ago — Aga Mahmed Khan — having set out upon 

* Barker. 



228 Beauty Crowned. 

a military expedition, and encamped in a place con- 
venient for his purpose, gave forth his edict that the 
encampment should not be removed until the snow 
had disappeared from the neighboring mountains. 
The season was severe. The snow clung to the 
mountains longer than usual, and in the meantime 
the army became straitened for supplies. Here was 
an unexpected difficulty. The king's appointment 
must stand, but the result was likely to be ruinous. 
To avert the difficulty, then, a vast multitude of 
laborers were despatched to clear away as far as they 
could the snow that was visible from the camp ; and 
with their aid and the help of a few days of sunshine 
the snow disappeared, and then immediately the army 
was put in motion." * 

At that very time Mordecai summoned the king's 
scribes. The} 7 wrote letters to the satraps and pashas, 
or the principal and subordinate imperial civil magis- 
trates of the provinces ; to the deputies or native 
local officers; and to the Jews, who were not ad- 
dressed in the former edict — to each nation in its 
own written alphabet and spoken dialect. It was the 
twenty-third day of the third month, the month 
Si van. 

The month Sivan is devoted to Sin, the moon-god, 
and corresponds to May-June. In the symbolic and 
religious nomenclature it is "the month of brick- 

* Davidson, Lectures on Esther, p. 266. 



The Beginning of the End. 229 

making " in which an old ritual ordained the liturgic 
ceremony to be observed for the molding of bricks 
for sacred buildings and royal edifices. " Religion in 
this case consecrated a usage resulting from the phys- 
ical climatic conditions. In Chaldea and Babylonia 
the majority of the edifices were built of bricks 
simply dried in the sun. The third month of the 
year* coincides with the period when the waters of 
the Euphrates and Tigris, which have been rising 
during March and April, begin to fall ; the condition 
of the soil left by the retreating waters makes it easy 
to mold the bricks at that particular time, and then 
to have them dry in the sun, already burning in its 
heat, though not yet fierce enough to crack the raw 
brick, which would inevitably happen if they were 
dried in July or August."f Inasmuch as the build- 
ing of the first city is connected with the first fratri- 
cide, this month is called " the month of the twins," 
and Lenormant thinks that it is also symbolic of that 
primeval tragedy. 

So the letters were written, and sealed with the 
king's seal, and hastened with all despatch to all the 
provinces of the empire by special couriers mounted 
upon the most swift and famous coursers. Had it 
not been for these letters the Jews would have been 
expected to remain passive while their enemies slew 

* Sivan, May-June. 

f Lenormant, Beginnings of History, pp. 147, 148. 



230 



Beauty Ceowned. 



the in, but they are now authorized to defend them- 
selves against violence and death. The support and 
protection of the government are withdrawn from 
any who venture by the au- 
thority of the former edict 
to attack the Jews, while 
the whole power of the gov- 
ernment is pledged to pro- 
tect the Jews in their strug- 
gle of self-defense. They 
may assemble, organize, and 
prepare for the thirteenth 
day of the month Adar. 
Since the edict of slaughter 
extended only to that one 
day, the present edict pro- 
tects them only when their 
lives would be 
Any attempt upon 



in danger. 




their 



Ordinary Persian costume. 



lives upon any other day would be unlawful. 

It is probable that much of the Book of Esther- is 
drawn from the official records of the kingdom, and 
that we have the very words of the decree : " To as- 
semble and stand for their lives ; to destroy, to kill, 
and to cause to perish all the force of people and 
province assailing them ; [to destroy] little children 
and women, and [take] their property for spoil, in 
one day, throughout all the provinces of the king 



The Beginning of the End. 231 

Xerxes ; on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, that 
is, the month Adar." The terms of this edict are as 
comprehensive as those of the former. The scribes 
certified the writing : " A copy of the writing to be 
given as a decree in every province, published to all 
the peoples : even for the Jews to be ready on that 
day to be avenged on their enemies." * 

With earnestness and resolution the king has es- 
poused the cause of the Jews. The decree was doubt- 
less submitted to the king for his inspection and 
approval, for the posts were hastened and pressed on 
by his commandment. 

The month Adar is sacred to the seven great gods, 
and symbolizes " the deposit of seed time," and is his- 
torically connected with the return to the cultivation 
of the earth after the great deluge. The zodiacal 
sign of this month — the fish — perpetuates the memory 
of the salvation of the righteous from the Noachian 
flood. 

Mordecai was now clad in the suitable dress of the 
prime minister — " in royal apparel of blue and white, 
and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of 
fine linen and purple." — R. V. The Persian mon- 
arch himself wore a purple robe and an inner vest of 
purple striped with white, f The robes of honor 
which he gave away were of many different colors, 

* The Lowell Hebrew Club, Tlie Booh of Esther, pp. 77, 78. 
f Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii, pp. 202, 203. 



232 Beauty Crowned. 

but generally of a single tint throughout;* but the 
one given to Mordecai seems to have been blue with 
white stripes. These were the colors of the royal dia- 
dem, f The golden crown was not the kingly diadem, 
but such a crown as might be worn by the greatest 
nobles. How soon has sackcloth been exchanged for 
goodly apparel! 

'•'The city of Shushan shouted and was glad." — 
R. V. When the former decree was issued, "the 
city Shushan was perplexed." 

Haman was an accomplished courtier, a profusive 
flatterer, a skillful diplomatist, a wise financier, 
a successful politician, a royal favorite, and a man 
fertile in expedients, yet the success of his adminis- 
tration of the government was only in appearance, 
An Oriental despotism would tolerate little unfavor- 
able criticism, but the story of his career leaves no 
doubt that his acts were offensive to the people. He 
had, indeed, powerful and influential friends, but 
neither officially nor socially did he command sincere 
respect. While his influence was dominant in the 
capital, the city was perplexed, and there was, doubt- 
less, little mourning at his death. 

The large majority of the Persians seem to have 
been friendly to the Jews. Their religion had many 
points in contact with that of the exiles. The real 

* Xen., Cyrop., viii, 3, § 3. 

f Rawlinson, Q. Curt., Vit. Alex, iii, 3. 



The Beginning of the End. 233 

enemies of the Jews were among the distinctively 
heathen nations. 

It augured well for the new administration of Mor- 
decai that his first measure was popular and received 
the enthusiastic support of his people. Happy the 
ruler whose influence and authority are anchored in 
the popular heart. The city of Shushan rejoiced. 

And especially to the Jews there were " light, and 
gladness, and joy, and honor." Not only was this 
true of the Jews dwelling in Shushan, but as this new 
decree of the king was published throughout all the 
provinces of the empire, " whithersoever the king's 
commandment and his decree came the Jews had joy 
and gladness, a feast and a good day." Since the 
queen and the prime minister belonged to the Jewish 
race, and the king himself was well disposed and had 
issued a favorable decree, and since the hand of 
Providence was so manifest in their history, the fear 
of the Jews fell upon the people, and doubtless many 
feared their God, and, as a consequence, not a few, 
either for prudential reasons or from conscientious 
motives, became proselytes to their faith. Persecu- 
tion resulted in the spiritual and numerical growth 
of the Church. 

What a multitude of events have been crowded 
into a single day ! What a change has been wrought 
in the interests of the people of God ! The sleepless 
night, the reading of the records of the kingdom, the 



234 Beauty Crowned. 

story of tlie conspiracy against the life of Xerxes, 
Lis awakened conscience, the early visit of Haraan 
to obtain an order for the execution of Mordecai, the 
prime minister summoned into the royal presence, the 
question proposed, the self-conceit of the grand vizier, 
the answer to the king's question, the honor con- 
ferred upon Mordecai, the humiliation and vexation 
of the royal favorite, the dark forebodings of his wife 
and his wise men, the queen's banquet, " What is thy 
petition, Queen Esther ? " the charge against Haman, 
the king's wrath, the first minister of state pleading 
for his life, his condemnation and execution upon the 
gallows erected for Mordecai, the confiscation of his 
property and its presentation to Esther, her appoint- 
ment of Mordecai over the estate, his elevation to the 
office of prime minister, Esther's second petition, the 
publication of the counter-edict throughout the prov- 
inces, joy in Shushan and among all the Jews — 
enough, surely, for one day. 



Victory, Peace, Gladness. 235 



XVI. 

VICTORY, PEACE, GLADNESS. 

"The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout 
all the provinces." — Esther ix, 2. 

" The Jews smote all their enemies." — Esther ix, 5. 

" Days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, 
and gifts to the poor." — Esther ix, 22. 

On the thirteenth day of the first month the decree 
of slaughter was sent forth ; on the twenty-third day 
of the third month a decree was issued permitting 
the Jews to stand in self-defense ; and the thirteenth 
day of the twelfth month was fixed for the execution 
of the bloody decree. ^Nearly nine months gave the 
Jews ample time to complete their preparation for 
self-defense. 

In any modern and civilized government a procla- 
mation might have been made, setting forth that the 
former decree had been procured upon false informa- 
tion, declaring it void, and forbidding all persons 
slaying or injuring the Jews or interfering with 
their property. But the peculiar Persian constitu- 
tion did not permit the use of common sense. What- 
ever passed the royal signet could not be reversed, 
not even by the monarch himself. The former de- 



236 Beauty Crowned. 

cree was still in force. It was lawful to destroy the 
Jewish nation, so that any one who murdered a Jew 
or seized his property was secure against punishment. 
The second decree made it lawful for the Jews to 
defend themselves, so that any Jew who slew an 
enemy or seized his property was secure against 
punishment. It was a proclamation of legalized civil 
war, a species of judicial combat. 

Had this second edict not been issued the Jews 
would doubtless in many cases have stood for their 
lives. The right and duty of self-defense for self- 
preservation would have been their sufficient justifi- 
cation. A divine instinct, more commanding than 
all human law, would have stirred them to fight for 
their lives wherever their numbers raised them above 
contempt. 

But the edict permitting them to defend themselves 
gave them tw T o important advantages. They could 
prepare for the struggle by gathering together in their 
villages and strongholds and thoroughly organizing, 
and the co-operation and protection of the govern- 
ment were withdrawn from their enemies. 

The decree in behalf of the Jews was as wide in 
its application as the former decree. Each permitted 
the slaying of women and children and their seizure 
of property. The Jews, however, were only to defend 
themselves against attack and slay those who sought 
their hurt. But why did not this second decree 



Victory, Peace, Gladness. 237 

prevent the war? The enemies of the Jews — largely 
among the heathen tribes — had often threatened the 
Jews and reminded them of the day of their doom. 
They had more than once told them that they were 
only waiting for the thirteenth day of the month 
Adar, wdien they would sweep the whole race from 
the face of the earth. They had gone too far to 
retreat. They had also stirred the wrath of the Jews, 
and feared their vengeance. 

The day came, and the Jews assembled in those 
cities where their numbers were greatest. Their 
enemies rushed to the attack, but the Jews were 
mightier than their mightiest foes, and no man could 
successfully face the people of God. They were also 
assisted by the government, for " all the rulers of the 
provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and 
officers of the king, helped the Jews ; because the 
fear of Mordecai fell upon all. . . . Thus the Jews 
sniote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, 
and slaughter, and destruction." Their courage and 
united efforts, with the encouragement and assistance 
of the rulers and the blessing of God, brought them 
victory. 

The population of Shushan at this time has been 
estimated at five hundred thousand souls, and the 
population of the whole Persian empire at one hund- 
red million. On the day of judicial combat five 
hundred men were slain in " Shushan the palace " 



238 Beauty Crowned. 

and seventy-five thousand in the empire outside the 
capital. This may be but a rough estimate quickly 
made from the reports already received. It was the 
custom in their final reports to make out and record 
the numbers with extreme exactness. The losses 
sustained by the Jews, if any there were, are not 
mentioned. 

The enemies of the Jews were doubtless idolaters 
and not Persians. Foremost among these in Shushan 
were the intimate friends of Hainan, who may have 
been under the immediate leadership of his ten sons, 
with whom the struggle was most desperate. The 
writer exultantly records their names — Parshandatha, 
Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Par- 
mashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Yajezatha. These names, 
except Adalia, are readily traceable to Persian roots. 
It is interesting to note the meanings of these Persian 
names of a noble and warlike family — " Given to 
Persia," "Arrogant," ." Horseman," "Having many 
Chariots," "Liberal," " Yery Greatest," "Mighty 
Conqueror," " Free Giver," and " Strong as the Wind." 
Haman had determined to destroy the whole Jewish 
race. God so overruled in the affairs of men that the 
Jews were victorious, and the ten sons of Hainan, who 
were his boast and pride, were slain. 

The Jews acted on the defensive, and hence slew 
only the armed force of the people. The edict permit- 
ted them " to destroy, to kill, and cause to perish little 



Victory, Peace, Gladness. 239 

children and women," but the history expressly 
states that they put to death only men. The edict 
also permitted them to seize the property of their 
enemies, but three times it is emphatically declared, 
" on the spoil they laid not their hands." This is an 
honor to their religion, wisdom, and humanity, and 
shows that morally they occupied a far higher posi- 
tion than their enemies. 

The day of conflict is drawing to a close. The 
number of the slain has been reported to the king. 
His interest in the cause of the Jews increases, and 
his anxiety to save and protect them quickens his 
foresight and decision. He sees that their heathen 
foes will be driven to more desperate efforts by their 
uncontrollable rage. He believes that in " Shushan 
the palace," where the friends of Haman are most 
bitter, the Jews will need still further protection. 
He is not sure of the course which he ought to pursue. 
He will ask Esther : " And the king said unto Esther 
the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five 
hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons 
of Haman ; what have they done in the rest of the 
king's provinces ? Now what is thy petition % and it 
shall be granted thee : or what is thy request further ? 
and it shall be done." Esther ix,JL2. 

The queen had doubtless consulted with Mordecai 
and other influential Jews who understood the situa- 
tion and were qualified to advise with full personal 



210 Beauty Crowned. 

knowledge of the need. She asks that the privilege 
of self-defense may be extended to another day, and 
that the bodies of the ten sons of Hainan may be 
impaled. The former request being granted, they 
can defend themselves against attack ; the impalement 
of the bodies of the ten sons of Haman will strike 
terror into their enemies and, possibly, prevent any 
further effusion of blood. The king grants these 
reasonable requests. The history of the next day 
proves their wisdom. The Jews are again attacked, 
and slay three hundred of their enemies who seek 
their lives ; " but on the spoil they laid not their 
hands." 

The crisis over, and the danger past, the Jews rest 
from their troubles and anxiety, and spend a day 
of " feasting and gladness." The Jews of Shushan, 
because of the two da} T s' struggle, celebrated the fif- 
teenth of Adar, while " the Jews of the villages, that 
dwelt in the un walled towns, made the fourteenth 
day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feast- 
ing, and a good day, and of sending portions one to 
another." The celebration was spontaneous. "No 
words can describe the solicitude and fear which 
must have filled the Jews in anticipation of the 
dreadful day fixed upon for their destruction. But 
now it was all over; God had appeared as their 
helper, and their troubles were at an end. Sweet 
deliverance and rest were now their portion. In 



Victoky, Peace, Gladness. 241 

commemoration of their happy state on this day, they 
made it a day of ' feasting and gladness.' They did 
not celebrate the slaughter. There was no reminder 
of the day on which the destruction of their enemies 
occurred ; but the days on which rest and quiet 
came to them had a lasting memorial." * 

Mordecai at once recognized the appropriateness 
and importance of celebrating, by an annual festival, 
their providential deliverance and rest. To secure 
uniformity throughout the empire, he sent letters en- 
joining upon the Jews to celebrate both the four- 
teenth and the fifteenth of Adar. He seems to have 
accompanied his recommendation by a history of the 
great struggle through which his people had passed. 
To keep alive their sense of gratitude to God for his 
signal providence the days were to be observed not 
only as days of joy and gladness, but also as days of 
good feeling, benevolence, and charity — " days of 
feasting and gladness, and sending portions every 
one to his neighbor, and gifts to the poor." 

The Jews adopted the recommendation of Mor- 
decai. " Now, because of all the words of this letter, 
and of what they had seen concerning the matter, 
and what had come to them, the Jews ordained, and 
took upon themselves, and upon their children, and 
upon all who should join themselves to them, with- 
out fail to keep these two days according to the 

* Greene. 
16 



242 Beauty Ckowned. 

writing in respect to them, and according to the time 
appointed for them each year ; that these days should 
be remembered and kept in every generation, every 
family, every province, and every city ; and that 
i these days of Purim should not fail from the midst 
of the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from 
their race." Esther ix, 26-28. 

The queen was deeply interested in this festival. 
Such were the anxieties, trials, dangers, and agonies 
through which she had passed that she felt impelled 
to prepare another letter, which was sent to all the 
Jews of the one hundred and twenty and seven prov- 
inces, which, with messages of "peace and truth," 
enjoined upon them "with all authority" the ob- 
servance of these days. This "second letter" or- 
dained fasting and crying — "the fasting and their 
cry " — in connection with Purim. It is probable 
that the thirteenth of Adar was the day appointed 
for this fasting, humiliation, and prayer. It would 
keep vividly before them the awful peril and the 
mighty deliverance, and would prepare them for the 
profitable observance of the days of feasting and glad- 
ness. It would commemorate both Esther's fasting 
before going to the king and the dark day of terror 
and slaughter. Posssibly this day of fasting was 
originally suggested to the popular heart, and Esther 
and Mordecai, as was the case in the former edict, 
merely followed the indications of Providence. This 



Yictoey, Peace, Gladness. 243 

second letter, called "the edict of Esther," since it 
originated with her, was written in the " book," and 
hence in the highest sense became official. 

Haman cast lots to determine an auspicious day 
upon which to carry out the bloody decree obtained 
through his influence against the Jews. In irony the 
festival which commemorates the deliverance of the 
Jews is called Lots, or Purim. If the fourteenth 
happens on the Sabbath, or on the second or fourth 
day of the week, the festival is deferred till the next 
day. Jewish tradition says that eighty-five Jewish 
elders objected to the institution of Purim when it 
was first proposed by Mordecai. This is quite im- 
probable. If the thirteenth of Adar is the Sabbath, 
the fast of Esther is held on the fifth day of the 
week. It cannot be held on the sixth, since dishes 
prepared for the Sabbath must be tasted. 

Purim is still celebrated by the Jews. On the 
fourteenth of Adar, as soon as the stars begin to ap- 
pear, candles are lighted in token of rejoicing, and 
the people assemble in the synagogue. The religious 
exercises begin with prayer and thanksgiving. The 
Book of Esther, written in a peculiar manner, and 
called in pre-eminence " The Roll," is now read. The 
text is translated into the tongue of the people and 
explained. Whenever the reader pronounces the 
name of Haman the whole congregation, remembering 
the king's edict of extermination, with true Jewish 



244 Beauty Crowned. 

spirit, cry out, " Let his name be blotted out ; may 
the name of the wicked rot ; " while the children, 
with equal vehemence, hiss, make a noise with their 
hands, strike the wall with mallets, and strike together 
blocks of wood or pieces of stone, upon which they 
have written the name of Hainan, so as to rub out 
the writing. The names of Hainan's ten sons are 
written in three perpendicular columns, as they are 
said to have hung on the stake. The Targum of 
Esther says that they all hung in one line, Hainan at 
the top, and his sons under him at regular intervals 
of half a cubit. It is said further that Zeresh and 
the seventy remaining sons fled, and were compelled 
to beg their bread from door to door. When the 
names of the ten sons of Ham an are read they are 
pronounced in one breath, to express the belief that 
they all perished at one instant. When the reading 
is finished the congregation exclaim : " Cursed be 
Haman ; blessed be Mordecai ; cursed be Zeresh ; 
blessed be Esther ; cursed be all idolaters ; blessed be 
all Israelites ; and blessed be Harbonah who hanged 
Haman." 

All now return to their homes and partake of a 
meal composed principally of eggs and milk: On 
the second day of the festival, after the prayers in 
the synagogue, the passages of Scripture which re- 
late to the destruction of the Amalekites are read ; 
and then again the Book of Esther, as on the previous 



Victory, Peace, Gladness. 245 

day. All are required to hear the reading on these 
days. Even cripples, invalids, and idiots are not ex- 
cused, so important is the service considered by every 
true Israelite. 

When the service of the synagogue is over, all give 
themselves to merry-making. They play various 
games, and dance, while music enlivens the festivi- 
ties. Frequently dramatic entertainments add to the 
pleasure of the occasion. They are also at liberty to 
disregard the rules in regard to dress, and each sex 
may appear in the attire of the other. Gifts are ex- 
changed, and the poor are not forgotten. It is writ- 
ten in the Talmud that at the feast of Purim a man 
should drink till he cannot tell the words " Cursed 
be Hainan " from " Blessed be Mordecai." It is cer- 
tain, however, that the modern Jews, at least, observe 
the feast with sobriety and temperance. The estima- 
tion in which Purim has been held may be seen from 
several proverbs. They say, " The Temple may fail, 
but Purim never." " The Prophets may fail, but not 
the Megillah;" "The Koll," or Book of Esther, read 
at the festival. 

Ezra and Nehemiah mention one Mordecai who 
was one of the leaders of the captives who returned 
from Babylon to Judea, and Josephus says that one 
Mordecai was an ambassador to king Darius from 
the Jews. 

Ctesias, who claims to have had access to the official 



246 Beauty Crowned. 

chronicles of Media and Persia, mentions one Matacas 
or Natacas, a most powerful favorite of Xerxes, and 
some authors have identified him with Mordecai. 
When Megabysus refused to plunder the temple of 
Apollo at Delphi, Xerxes sent Matacas, who insulted 
the god, plundered the temple, and thereby fully sat- 
isfied the king. It has been thought that Xerxes 
would readily have selected as his prime minister one 
whose hatred of idolatry would have specially quali- 
fied him for carrying out the iconoclastic ideas of the 
Persian king. 



Prosperity, Happiness. 247 



XVII. 

PROSPERITY, HAPPINESS. 

"For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great 
among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seek- 
ing the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed." — 
Esther x, hi. 

Darius, after taking possession of the Persian 
government, " proceeded to establish twenty govern- 
ments of the kind which the Persians call satrapies, 
assigning to each its governor, and fixing the tribute 
which • was to be paid him by the several nations. 
And generally he joined together in one satrapy the 
nations that were neighbors, but sometimes he passed 
over the nearer tribes, and put in their stead those 
which were more remote. . . . The whole revenue 
which came in to Darius year by year will be found 
to be, in Euboic money, fourteen thousand five 
hundred and sixty talents, not to mention parts of a 
talent" — an equivalent, in our time, to about two 
hundred and sixty-two million five hundred thousand 
dollars. 

" Such was the revenue which Darius derived 
from Asia and a small part of Libya. Later in his 
reign the sum was increased by the tribute of the 



248 Beauty Crowned. 

islands and of the nations of Europe as far as Thes- 
saly. The great king stores away the tribute which 
he receives after this fashion — he melts it down, and 
while it is in a liquid state runs it into earthen ves- 
sels, which are afterward removed, leaving the metal 
in a solid mass. When money is wanted, he coins as 
much of this bullion as the occasion requires." 

The country of the Persians was altogether ex- 
empt from taxes. The Ethiopians and their neigh- 
bors on the borders of Egypt were not taxed, but 
brought gifts to the king. " Every third year these 
two nations brought — and they still bring, to my day 
— two choenices of virgin gold, two hundred logs of 
ebony, five Ethiopian boys, and twenty elephant 
tusks. The Colchians, and the neighboring tribes 
who dwell between them and the Caucasus— for so 
far the Persian rule reaches, while north of the Cau- 
casus no one fears them any longer — undertook to 
furnish a gift, which in my day was still brought 
every fifth year, consisting of a hundred boys, and 
the same number of maidens. The Arabs brought 
every year a thousand talents of frankincense. Such 
were the gifts which the king received over and 
above the tribute-money."* 

The rivers of the empire, fisheries, and probably 
other possessions were crown property, and yielded 
large revenues to the state..f 

* Herodotus, iii, 89, 95, 96, 97. f Ibid., iii, 117. 



mm - 




Prosperity, Happiness. 251 

Governors were appointed to the satrapies by the 
king, and were removed or executed at his pleasure. 
Their chief duty was to collect and transmit to the 
capital the tribute. This tribute was only for the 
royal court. The satraps and other officers must look 
after their own compensation. 

"As they represented the monarch, their courts 
were framed upon the royal model ; they had their 
palaces, surrounded by magnificent parks and hunt- 
ing grounds — their numerous train of eunuchs and 
attendants, and their own household troops or body- 
guard. They assessed the tribute on the several 
towns and villages within their jurisdiction at their 
pleasure, and appointed deputies, called sometimes, 
like themselves, satraps, over cities or districts within 
their province, whose office was regarded as one of 
great dignity. So long as they were in favor at 
court, they ruled their satrapies with an absolute 
sway, involving no little tyranny and oppression. 
Besides the fixed tribute which each satrap was 
obliged to remit to the king, and the amount that he 
had to collect for the payment of the troops of his 
province, he might exact, for his own personal ex- 
penses and the support of his court, whatever sum he 
considered his province able to furnish. All persons 
who had any favor, or even justice, to ask approached 
him with gifts, without which success was not to be 
looked for ; and hence enormous fortunes were ac- 



252 Beauty Crowned. 

cumulated. The sole limit upon the rapacity of the 
satrap was the fear of removal in case the voice of 
complaint became so loud as to reach the ears of the 
monarch."* 

The inhabitants of those provinces through which 
the king led his armies gave him many valuable 
presents. 

This system, though a great improvement on the 
more ancient financial plan of the Assyrian and 
Babylonian courts, was liable to abuse. The people 
often suffered under the despotic hand of oppression. 
Property was insecure, and motives to industry and 
frugality were few. The resources of the empire 
could be but imperfectly developed. 

Xerxes made a new assessment of the tribute re- 
quired for the expenses of his court — tribute of per- 
sonal service, money, and the productions of the 
provinces. This tribute he laid both upon the land 
and upon the islands of the sea — Cyprus, Aradus, 
the island of Tyre, the maritime tracts of Europe 
which were occupied by Persian garrisons, and pos- 
sibly the islands of the ^Egean, whose independence 
he would be slow to recognize.f Special efforts would 
be required to replenish the treasury exhausted by 
his Grecian campaigns. Mordecai seconded the king 
in this work. Although next to the king he was not 

* Rawlinson, Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 462. 
f Herodotus, vii, 106, lOt. 



Prosperity, Happiness. 253 



forgetful of his own people, for he was "great 
among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his 
brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speak- 
ing peace to all his seed," or to all the Jewish people. 
" He was not a dumb man, never having any thing to 
say for God or the Church ; but one of his distin- 
guishing characteristics was that he spoke peace to 
his race. Peace is one of the grandest and sweetest 
words in the Hebrew language. It was used in salu- 
tations. " Peace be to you," was the Jewish benedic- 
tion. Peace means welfare, health, prosperity, and 
all that is good. Mordecai was not a fault-finder, a 
censurer, but he spoke words of cheer, hope, encour 
agement, and prosperity to his race." * 

The rabbis have ever honored the memory of Mor- 
decai. They have praised him in terms of extrav- 
agant exaggeration. They say that he knew the 
seventy languages of the nations of the tenth chapter 
of Genesis. They surname him, and we believe with 
good reason, The Just. They describe in ample 
terms his splendid robes, his Persian buskins, and his 
Median scymetars. They describe the golden crown 
which he wore, the rich profusion of precious stones 
and Macedonian gold on which they said there was an 
engraved view of Jerusalem, and the phylacteries over 
the crown. They relate how myrtle boughs were 
strewed in the streets along which he passed. They 
* Greene. 



254 



Beauty Crowned. 



speak with pride of his numerous attendants, the 
heralds with their trumpets, and the great glory and 
exaltation of his people. 

The so-called tomb of Modecai and Esther, a place 
of unusal interest, is at Hamadan or Ecbatana. " The 
tomb stands on ground somewhat more elevated than 




The Tomb of Mordecai and Esther. 



any in the immediate neighborhood, and is in rather 
a decayed condition. It occupies a small space in 
the midst of ruins, in the quarter appropriated to 
Jewish families. The entrance to the building is by 
a stone door of small dimensions, the key of which is 



Peospekity, Happiness. 255 

always kept by the chief rabbi. This door conducts 
to the antechamber, which is larger than the outer 
apartment. In the midst of this stand the two sar- 
cophagi of Mordecai and Esther, of dark and hard 
wood, like that of Ezra. They are cenotaphs, stand- 
ing beside each other, distinguished only by the 
one (Mordecai' s) being a little larger than the other. 
They are richly carved, and have a Hebrew inscrip- 
tion along the upper ledge, taken from Esther ii, 5, 
and x, 3." 

" The wood is in good preservation, though evident- 
ly very old. The present building is said to occupy 
the site of one more magnificent, which was destroyed 
by Timur Beg, soon after which this humble building 
was erected in its place, at the expense of certain 
devout Jews; and it is added that it was fully re- 
paired about one hundred and sixty years since by a 
rabbi named Ismael. If this local statement be cor- 
rect, some of the inscriptions which now appear must, 
as the resident Jews state, have belonged to the pre- 
ceding building, which, however, could not have 
been the original mausoleum, since one of these in- 
scriptions describes it as having been finished pos- 
terior to the Christian Era." 

The apocryphal additions to the Book of Esther 
are by a later hand and possess little value. The 
author of the canonical work drew from the official 
records of the kingdom to which he refers for more 



256 Beauty Crowned. 

complete historical information. These original 
records have been lost, but their former existence is 
without question. 

The name of God is not mentioned in this whole 
book, but his providence, his power, his grace, 
and his love for the people are manifest in every 
line. 



INDEX 



Aaron, 149. 

Abehail, 116. 

Abib, 166. 

Abigail, 150. 

Abraham entertains angels, 46. 

Acanthians, 207. 

Accadians, 15, 26, 27, 160. 

Adar, 231. 

Advisers, the king's, 90, 91. 

decision of, 92-95. 
^Eschylus, 150, 179. 
Aga Mahmed Khan, 227, 228. 
A gag, 150. 
Ahasuerus, 16. 

character fits Xerxes, 22. 

chronology of events, 23. 

transliteration of name, 22. 
Ahinoam, 150. 
Ahuramazda, 159. 
Alexander, 31, 58, 211. 

feast of, 48. 
Amalekites, Amalika, 147, 148. 
Amarphal, Amarpal, 30. 
Amestris, 164, 196, 197. 
Ammon, salt of, 49. 
Amu, 148. 
Amyntas, 70. 
Anaitis, temple of, 41. 
Anthylla, 139. 

Arabia, frankincense from, 58, 115. 
Arabs, gift to the king, 248. 
Ararat, 15. 

Arbela, battle of, 12, 31. 
Arbiter bibendi, 66. 
Archilochus the Parian, 69. 
Areus, 174. 
Aria, 15. 
Arioch, 30. 
Aristagoras, 30. 
Armenia, 15. 
Arrian, 211. 
Arrows of fate, 162. 
Artabanus, 53, 142. 

17 



Artaxerxes, 91, 125, 141, 212. 
Artaynta, 21, 195-198. 
Artemisia, 19. 
Ashdod, speech of, 95. 
Ashtoreth, 111. 
Asia Minor, 15. 
Aspamistras, 142. 
Assembly, 52. 
Assos, 49. 
Assurbanipal, 10. 

conquers Elam, 29. 
Assyria, 9-11, 15, 115. 
Astyages slays the son of Harpagus, 
18. 

his dream, 88, 89. 

Babel, tower of, 110. 
Babylon, royal palace, 40. 

scenes in, 110. 
Babylonia, 15. 
Bactria, 15, 197. 
Bagseus, 170. 
Bagdad, 176. 
Balowat gates, 142. 
Banquet of wine, 49. 

date of the banquet at Shushan, 
54. 
Beauty, 117, 118. 

danger of, 121. 

definition of, 119. 

moral, 121, 122. 

of man, 120, 

queenliness of, 107. 

studied in the Orient, 130. 
Beginning of the end, 224. 
Behistun inscription, 87. 
Bel, temple of, 110. 
Belshazzar, feast of, 48. 
Benefactors, rewarded, 206-208. 
Bigthan, Bigtha, 141. 
Book of Esther drawn from official 
records, 230, 231. 

apocryphal, 255, 256. 



258 



Beauty Crowned— Index. 



Bowing in worship, 151, 152. 
Brick-making in Chaldea and Baby- 
lonia, 229. 
Brilliant entertainments, 46. 

Callatebus, 163. 
Cambyses, 179. 

marriage, 124. 
' slays son of Prexaspes, 16. 

treatment of body of Amasis, 
17. 
Candaules, 68. 
Cape Sepias, 164. 
Captivity, 111-114. 
Carthaginians, 51. 
Caucasus, 248. 
Celts, 51. 

Chaldeans, priests, 160, 161. 
Chamberlains, the seven, 67. 
Chebar, 108. 

Chedorlaomer, 29, 30, 147. 
Chehl Minar, 34, 36. 
China polyandry, 97, 98. 
Choaspes, 31. 
Cilicia, 206. 
Cissia, 24. ■ 
City of lilies, 24. 

Cleomenes, account of Susa, 30, 31. 
Colchians, gifts to the king, 248. 
Concubines, 99. 
Confiscation of property, 224. 
Conjugal relations in the Old Testa- 
ment, 98. 
Consecration to God, 126. 
Conspiracy discovered, 141, 142. 

conspirators slain, 143. 
Coprates, 31. 
Cos, 158. 
Cosmetics, 61. 
Council ot Trent, 98. 
Court of a Persian king, 59. 
Covering the head, 220-223. 
Croesus, 17. 
Crown on horses, 215. 
Ctesias, 42, 146. 
Curatii, 220-222. 
Curtius, 152. 
Cuthseans, 40. 
Cyaxares, 11, 89. 

slaughters the Scythians, 159. 
Cyprus, 15. 
Cyrus, 12, 18, 91, 114. 

Dabhar, meaning of, 220. 
Damocedes, 206. 



Daniel, tomb of, 27, 32, 34. 
as pontiff, 43. 
dwelt at Shushan, 42. 
Daris of Samos, 51. 
Darius, 47, 58, 86, 87, 99, 151, 207, 

224, 247. 
Dascylus, 68. 
David, 116. 
Delhi, 176. 
Demaratus, 211, 212. 
Diodorus, 139, 185. 
Dizful, 31. 
Divination, 160, 161. 
Dress, crime of wearing the king's, 

211, 212. 
Druses slaughter the Christians, 

177. 

Ecbatana, 41, 42. 

Edict of Esther, 242,243. 

Edict of slaughter, 174, 175. 

Education, 61. 

Egypt, 15. 

Ehud, 150. 

Elam, 24, 30. 

meaning of word, 29. 
Ellasar, 30. 
Elymais, 24. 
Eriaku, 30. 
Esau, 148, 149. 
Esdraelon, 150. 
Estelle, 117. 
Esther, 116. 

again pleads before the king, 
225, 226. 

apparel, 136. 

appoints a fast, 188. 

appoints Mordecai administra- 
tor of Hainan's property, 225. 

before the king, 194, 195. 

brought to the king's house, 
123. 

character, 122. 

commendation, 137. 

consecrated to God, 126. 

difficulties, 190. 

faith, 189-191. 

favored by Hegai, 123. 

her edict, 242, 243. 

in the palace, 129. 

invites the king and Haman to 
a banquet, 198-200. 

kindred kept secret, 123, 124. 

meaning, 117. 

obedient to Providence, 126. 



Beauty Crowned — Index. 



259 



Esther — continued. 

patriotism, 226, 227. 

remembers her benefactor, 140. 

responsibility, 190. 

reveals relations to Mordecai, 
224. 

reveal's the plot, 217, 218. 

tomb, 254, 255. 

visits the king, 136. 

won the king, marriage, feast, 
137, 138. 
Ethiopians not taxed, 248. 
Etiquette, 61, 184. 
Eulseus, Ulai, 27, 28. 
Eunuch, meaning of word, 101. 

influence, 101, 102. 
Executions, methods of, 142. 
Exiles, 108. 

employments, 111. 

groups, 111. 

in Egypt, 115. 

number who returned, 114, 115. 

of Judah, 115. 
Ezekiel, visions, 110, 119. 

mentions divination, 162. 
Ezra, 115, 154. 

Family, Persian, 102. 

Bible picture, 103. 

model, 102, 103. 

Xerxes', 103. 
Far.*, 14. 

Fast of Esther, 189. 
Feast, preparations for, 62, 63. 

deliberations, 65. 

food, 64. 

•'no compelling," 66. 

scenes, 64, 65. 
Flatterers, 83. 
Footmen, 171. 
Futteh Ali Shah, 202. 

Gems, 61, 62. 
Gera, 116. 
Germans, 51. 
Gifts to the king, 248. 
Goim, 30. 
Golden bowl, 38. 
Golden plane-tree, 38. 
Golden vine, 38. 
Grecian war, 106. 
Grief, signs of, 177-180. 
Guti, Gutium, 30. 
Gyges, 12, 68. 
Gyndes, 18. 



Hadassah, 116. 117. 
Hall of state, 43, 44. 

scene in, 61. 
Haman, 44, 120, 121. 

casts lots, 166. 

character and government, 225, 
226, 232. 

children, 201, 202. 

compelled to honor Mordecai, 
212, 213. 

condemned, 220. 

despair, 219. 

discouraged by his friends, 216. 

great honors, 200. 

bis sons impaled, 244. 

identifications, 150. 

impaled, 223. 

influence at court, 151. 

invited by Esther to a banquet, 
199, 200. 

kingly honors, 210. 

loyal family, 203. 

names of his sons, 238. 

parades his fortune, 202, 203. 

pleads for his life, 219. 

pride, 154. 

property confiscated, 224. 

religion, 164. 

rises early, 208, 209. 

selfishness, 209, 210. 

unhappy, 203. 
Hanging, 143. 
Happiness not in worldly gifts, 84, 

85, 203. 
Harbonah, 223. 
Harem, 105, 106. 
Hatacb, 181-185. 
Hatra, palace of, 40. 
Havilah, 147. 

Hebrews, molten sea of the, 40. 
Hegai, 123, 135. 
Helbon, wine of, 49. 
Hellespont scourged and branded,18. 
Hermotimus, 102. 
Herod, 195. 
Herodias, 195. 
Herusha, 148. 
Hezekiah, 9. 
Home, 96. 

Christian, 103. 

symbol of heaven, 103. 
Horatii, 220-222. 
Hormah, battle of, 149. 
Hur. 149. 
Husbands, plurality of, 97, 98. 



260 



Beauty Crowned — Index. 



Iberians, 51. 
Impalements, 142, 143. 

among the Turks, 143. 

by Darius, 143. 
India, 15. 
Influence, 93. 
Inscriptions, 43. 

Behistun, 87. 
Intaphernes, 183, 184. 
Isaiah, 133. 
Ispahan, 176. 
Istar, 117. 
lzdubar, 29. 

J air, 116. 

Janizaries, 176. 

Jehoiakim, captivity of, 107, 113. 

Jeremiah, 111. 

Jews in exile, 107. 

advantages, 113. 

defensive warfare, 238. 

may defend themselves against 
their enemies, 229-231. 

number of their enemies slain, 
237, 238. 

organization in exile, 108, 109. 

patriotism and religion, 107. 

second day of their defense, 
239, 240. 

struggle, 236, et seq. 

touch no spoil, 239, 240. 

victory, joy, and gladness, 240, 
et seq. 
Joktanites, 147. 
Josephus, 144. 
Joshua, 149. 
Judas Maccabaeus, 189. 
Jupiter, chariot of, 163. 

Kerkhah, 31. 

Khabour, 108. 

Khan of Khiva, 142. 

Khumbaba, 29. 

King of Persia at table, 48. 

amusements, 49, 50. 

diadem, 55. 

dress, 55. 

fly-qliaser, 57. 

his court,.59. 

luxuries of, 49. 

number <*& wives, 98. 

ornaments, 57. 

parasol, 56. 

scent bottle, 58. 

scepter, 56. 



King's benefactors, 143-145. 

King's duties, 145, 146. 

Kish, 115. 

Kislev, 137. 

Kohl, 131. 

Koords butcher the Nestorians, 

177. 
Kudur Mabug, 30. 
Kudur Nakkhunti, 30. 

Lacedaemonians, 138, 152. 

Lake Moeris, 139. 

Lampsacus, 206. 

Larsa, 30. 

Laws of Medes and Persians, 227, 

228. 
Legalized war, 236. 
Leonidas, 86. 
Letters of Mordecai hastened, 

229. 
Loftus, 34. 
Lots, 165, 166. 

Lucky and unlucky days, 165. 
Lud, 147. 

Luristan, mountains of, 24. 
Lydia, 12. 

Magabysus, 246. 

Magi, mentioned in Bible, 159. 

influence over Cambyses, 161. 

massacred, 162. 

Pseudo-Smerdis, 161. 

rites, 162. 
Magnesia, 206. 
Mardonius, 19, 178. 
Masistes, 21, 195-198. 
Masistius, 178. 
Massacres, 157, 158. 
Medes, 157. 
Media conquered, 12. 
Megabazus, 70. 
Memucan, 91, 92. 
Mesabates, 91. 
Mesha, 133. 
Midianites, 150. 
Milton, 31. 
Miriam, 149. 
Mithras, feast of. 51. 
Mithridates gives Cyrus his first 

wound, 207. 
Mithridates puts Italians to death, 

158. 
Mizraim, 147. 
Moabites, 150. 
Mohammed, 120. 



Beauty Crowned — Index. 



261 



Mordecai, 115. 

adopts Esther, 115, 116. 

bowed not, 153, 200, 221. 

care of Esther, 125. 

character, 116. 

charge to Esther, 181, 182. 

convinces Esther, 185, 186. 

fasts with the other Jews, 188. 

his grief, 177, 178. 

his robes and crown, 231-233. 

honored by the rabbis, 253, 254. 

honors await him, 212-215. 

made prime minister, 225. 

popularity of his administra- 
tion, 233. 

position, 125. 

record read, 205. 

reveals the plot to Esther, 181, 
182. 

speaks peace to the Jews, 253. 

suggested identifications, 245, 
246. 

the king's benefactor, 146. 

to be hung, 203, 204, 208, 209. 

tomb of Mordecai and Esther, 
254, 255. 

writes an edict in the king's 
name to save the Jews, 228. 
Mourning, 177-180. 

not permitted in the royal pal- 
ace, 180, 181. 
Mousa, the Parthian queen, 70. 

Nabopolassar, 11. 
Nana, the goddess, 30. 
Nebuchadnezzar, 11, 111. 

feast of, 48. 
Nebuzaradan, 115. 
Nehemiah, 95, 115, 154. 

at Shushan, 42. 
Nereids, 164. 
Nergal, 39. 

Nestorians butchered, 177. 
Nimrod, 29. 
Nineveh, 15. 
Ninip, 39. 

Nisasan horses, 163. 
Nisan, 166. 
Nizir, 27. 

Obedience to Providence, 126. 
03obazus, 86. 
Official records, 230, 231. 
Oriental hospitality, 46. 
Oriental promises, 195-198. 



Ornaments, 57. 

among the Midianites, 133. 

in Assyria and Babylonia, 134. 

in Chaldea, 134. 

in Media, 135. 

in Palestine, 131. 

in Persia, 134, 135. 

love of, rebuked, 133. 

Mishna, 133. 

number and variety, 132. 
Oroetes, 170, 171, 224. 
Orosangs, 144. 
Osirtasen I., 169. 
Otanes, 204. 

Pactolus, 12. 
Palace platform, 37. 

canopy and couches, 38. 

court of the garden, 44. 

difficulty of gaining entrance, 
182-184. 

first house of the women, 44. 

furnishment, 37. 

king's palace, 44. 

queen's palace, 44, 45. 

throne, 39. 
Palestine, i5. 
Parasol, royal, 56. 
Parmenio, 173. 
Parsi, the modern, 160. 
Parthian kings, 58. 
Pary satis, 91, 139. 
Pauline de Viguiere of Toulouse, 

120. 
Pausanius, 51, 145. 
Pen, power of, 111. 
Pentecost, 29. 
Perfumeries, 59. 
Pergamus of Priam, 163. 
Persepolis, 36. 

inscriptions, 22, 23. 

treasures, 47. 
Persia, extent of empire, 13. 

footmen, 171. 

inns, 172. 

Persia Proper, 14 

postal system, 172. 

post houses, 172. 

post routes, 173. 

provinces, 14. 

sacred books of, 159. [i 

soldiers, 172. 

swift riders, 172. 
Persian empire, population, 237. 
Persian gift, 196. 



262 



Beauty Crowned — Index. 



Persian king, crime of wearing his 

garments, 211, 212. 
Persians, character of, 12, 13. 

dress, 60. 

drunkenness, 50. 

early temperance, 60. 

friendly to the Jews, 232, 233. 

power of their king, 13. 

riches of camp, 81, 82. 

sacrifice of prisoners, 164. 

sin of falsehood, 13. 

table customs, 50. 
Persians and Medes, laws of, 91, 

104, 105. 
Phenicia, 15. 
Philetas, 223. 
Philotus, 173. 
Phraataces, 70. 
Plato, 51. 
Pliny, 58. 
Poetic justice, 216. 
Pride before a fall, 147. 
Property of enemies confiscated, 167, 

168. 
Prostration, 153. 
Providence, 186-188. 
Providential systems, 127. 
Pseudo-Smerdis, 138. 

assassination of, 157, 207. 
Purim, 243-245. 
Pythius the Lydian, 38, 86. 

Queen at meals, 70. 
Queen-mother, authority of, 100. 
Quintus Curtius, 99. 

Rameses III., 148. 

Records made by scribes, 145. 

Religion of Persia, 158, 159. 

of Chaldea, 160. 
Rephidim, battle of, 149. 
Roads, 171. 

Robes of honor, 231, 232. 
Royal bounties, 139. 
Royal judges, 124. 

Sabaco, 169. 
Sacans, 197. 
Sacrifices to streams, 164. 

to winds, 89. 
Salamis, 19, 144. 
Samuel, 150. 

Sanjur, king of Persia, 33. 
Sardis. 106. 
Sassahian king, court of, 80. 



Satrapies, 248-252. 
Saul, 116, 150, 185. 
Scent bottle, 58. 
Scepter, 56. 

forms of the, 185. 
Scribes, 171. 
Scythians, 51. 

slaughtered by Cyaxares, 157. 
Seal, 168. 

of Darius Hystaspis, 169. 

of Joseph. 169. 

of Sennacnerib, 169. 

ring seal, 169. 

symbol, 169, 170. 

use of, 168, 179. 
Sebsewar, 176. 
Second edict, 236, 237. 
Seirites, 148. 
Semites, cult, 162. 

gods, 162. 

planetary worship, 163. 

precepts of, 163. 
Sennacherib defeats the Ethiopians 

and the Egyptians, 9. 
Seven great families of Persia, 
87. 

privileges of, 88. 
Shaashgaz, 135. 
Shapur, 27, 31, 43. 
Shasu, 148. 
Sheba, 115. 

Sheikh Ali Mirza, 202. 
Shimei, 116. 
Shinar, 30. 
Shur, 147. 
Shush, 27. 

mounds of, 31. 
Shushan, 15, 42. 

joy in, 232. 

palace of, 43, 123, 145. 

population, 237. 

the city, 42. 
Shuster, 27. 
Sin, 228. 
Sivan, 228, 229. 
Socrates, 139. 
Solomon, 40, 60, 199, 208. 
Soothsayers of Scythia, 161. 
Stanley, 107. 
Stella, 117. 

Stones of pavement, 63. 
Strabo, 44, 164. 
Strymon, 164. 
Sumir, 30. 
Superstition and cruelty, 157. 



Beauty Ckowned — Index. 



263 



Susa, 24, 30, 178. 

citadel mound, 43. 

city of, 27, 28.' 

heat of, 29. 

inscriptions, 29. 

palace of, 34-37. 

present desolation, 32. 

riches, 31. 

the great platform, 43. 
Susiana, 15. 

nature of the country, 25, 
26. 

territory, 24. 
Susis, 24. 

Tacitus, 51. 

Talmud, accounts in the, 154, 213- 

215. 
Tamerlane, massacres of, 176. 
Targum, 244. 
Tebeth, month of, 137. 
Temple of Bel, 110. 
Ten tribes, the, 115. 
Teresh, 141. 
Teribazus, 212. 
The wise men, 88. 
Themistocles, 206. 
Theodon the Samian, 38. 
Thetis, 164. 
Throne, 39. 
Thucydides, 144. 
Thurgal, 30. 
Tidal, 30. 

Tower of Babel, 110. 
Tribute, 247, 248. 
Trouble in the palace, 141. 
Tur-gal, 30. 
Turks, their slaughter of Christians, 

176, 177. 
Turn to be introduced to the king, 

135. 

Ulal, 27, 32. 

Vashti, feast of, 67. 

disgraced, 104. 

disobeys the king, 82, 100. 

divorced, 95. 
Virgins, 99. 

Walnole, 120. 

Ways, The Nine, 164. 

Wife, 97. 

rank of, in Eome, 98. 
Williams, General, 34. 



Wine, 71, 72. 

as a medicine, 74. 

at the table, 74. 

Bible, 75. 

in the home, 73, 74. 

the curse of, 76. 
Winged human-headed bulls and 

lions, 39. 
Wheels within wheels, 205. 
Woman, seclusion of, 100. 
Writing, material, character, the 
pen, ink ? 173. 

an ancient letter, 174. 

Xerxes, 12. 

absolute power, 85. 

amours, 20, 21. 

assembly of, 52. 

character drawn by Eawlinson, 
21. 

character fits Ahasuerus, 22. 

chronology of events, 23. 

could not forgive, 87. 

defeated at home, 85. 

diadem, 55. 

dream, 53. 

dress, 55. 

encourages hard drinking, 72. 

extent of empire, 22. 

extravagant promises, 
197. 

fan or fiy-cbaser, 57. 

feared by Mardonius 19. 

grants Mordecai and Esther au- 
thority to draw up letters to 
save the Jews, 227. 

his wrath, 83. 

inflamed with wine, 67. 

listens to the records, 205. 

love for wife of Masistes, 195- 
198. 

love of display, 51. 

makes a release to the prov- 
inces, 138. 

master of Athens, 178. 

murdered, 142. 

name, 22. 

obedience of Persians, 20. 

on his throne, 63. 

pacified, 223. 

palace, 44. 

rage against Haman, 218-220. 

rashness, 71. 

repents of rashness, 104. 

retreat from Europe, 19. 



264 



Beauty Crowned — Index. 



Xerxes — continued. 
royal parasol, 56. 
scepter, 56. 

scourges the Hellespont, 18. 
seeks advice, 53. 
selfish, 82. 

sends for Vashti, 70. 
shows his treasures, 66. 
slays his helmsman, 20. 
slays Phenician sailors, 19. 



Xerxes — continued. 

spends a sleepless night,205, 
title, 22. 
war tent, 51. 

Zedekiah, 111. 

Zend-Avesta, 158. 

Zeresh, 203. 

Ziklag, 150. 

Zoroastrian belief, 159, 160. 



THE END. 



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